Importance of venture capital investors for the industrial biotechnology industry

Abstract

As in the medical biotechnology area some decades ago, the fast technological development within industrial biotechnology (IB) has caused numerous new ventures. Venture capital (VC) has become a major capital source for these companies and VC investors have particularly allocated financing to research and development (R&D) based companies. Since the early 2000s, the global net stock of VC investments in IB companies has continuously increased over the past 12 years and exceeded 3.5 billion US dollars at the end of 2013. In 2013, the gross amount of VC money was 386 million US dollars distributed to 20 companies corresponding to an average amount of 19.3 million US dollars for each company. The rising capital contribution into the IB sector indicates that it is seen as an attractive investment opportunity for VC investors. Analysing the VC investments by segments shows that there is a strong preference for biofuels and biochemicals. The regional breakdown of VC activities shows that the Americas are the leading region followed by Europe.