– Since the financial crisis the total private venture capital in the early phases declined sharply. Something that has cost Sweden both jobs and new growth companies. Meanwhile, the state’s previous risk asset shown major flaws in terms of inefficiency, immobility and severe clarity.
So began Industry Minister Mikael Damberg (S) held a press conference on Monday at Rosenbad, when he presented the government’s new proposals on State venture capital.
the bill “the state and capital “, which will be submitted to parliament on Tuesday, proposing a new structure for the state’s venture capital efforts.
the venture capital operations made when into a national company under the name Fond Invest AB. The company will collaborate with private operators. According to the Minister, such an investment to facilitate the government’s ability to control individual funds over a given period of time.
– With this bill, we will create a fund of fund scheme that invests together with private capital and that also can benefit and directing private capital in early stages, says Mikael Damberg told SvD Business.
the idea is also that the company will conform the existing VCs Fourier transform and Inlandsinnovation. Two funds that have previously been criticized for its geographical and sectoral limitations. It is, however, no new investments in the future and the subordinate funds will be phased out over time. In total, the Fund Invest AB to manage 5 billion.
Another important point is that the state company Almi will get a “clear” mandate to strengthen loan financing business. With greater borrowing capacity, the state can act as “complementary to the market” for companies that find it difficult to borrow from the major commercial banks.
Damberg will not go into specific sectors, which the new fund-of-fund structure will go in. But when he talks about one of the Fund Invest branches, including the so-called demo Fund, mentions nutrient mini stern forest industry as a sector that is facing new challenges.
– Remove fund focuses on demonstration plants which aims to draw up a small-scale production into a more commercial scale, says Damberg and continues:
– When the forest industry switches to new technology, it must make new investments. Since the market has been a little difficult to finance this, we believe that the state has a major role to play here.
Damberg also mentions the life science sector because it is an industry where venture capital has declined sharply.
– It is not inconceivable that a new fund-of-fund structure will look at the life sciences as one of the important areas, he said.
Fond Invest will also focus on seed investments, which supports investments in early stages. It is then often innovative environments in cooperation with local growth funds or business angel networks.
If the proposal goes through the parliament, the company Fond Invest will be formed in 2016 while the new structure is expected to be in place in January 2017.
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