$35.6 billion invested globally in university spinouts between 2013-2016

Over the past four years, 1,668 deals involving university spinout companies from across the globe attracted approximately $35.6 billion from 2013 to 2016, according to a new report from Global University Venturing. The report, however, highlights that global deals peaked in 2014 with 529 deals and total investments dollars peaked in 2015 with nearly $14 billion invested. As the authors highlighted, these global numbers were unsustainable and 2016 saw significant declines in both deals and dollars. In 2016, the total deals reported were 407 (21.6 percent decrease from 2015) and dollars invested was $6.4 billion (a 54.3 percent decrease from 2015).

Nearly half of all global deals were spinouts from U.S.-based institutions with 768 deals funded. Driven by the strength of its top universities, the UK finished second with nearly 505 deals completed. In comparison, the countries (Germany, Canada, and Australia) that rounded out the top five had a combined 135 deals.

The primary source of investment capital for university spinouts remains the traditional startup capital such as venture capital firms, private equity investors, private investors, angel investors, other individual investors, and foundations. Over the four years of the data, the total percentage of investment made by traditional forms of capital range from a low of 51 percent in 2014 to a high of 67 percent in 2013. On average, universities invest in up to 17 percent of all deals with approximately 20 percent coming from corporate investors (e.g., corporate venture capital). The remaining source of capital is government investors, which tends to fluctuate between 5 and 10 percent of deals.