High-tech venture capital in the Baltics（一）.pptVIP

High-tech venture capital in the Baltics ALLAN MARTINSON Managing Partner No alternative to knowledge economy The Balts are used to 5-9% growth rates Equal to doubed GDP in absolute terms in every 6-8 years To sustain this growth we need to increase productivity 10-15% per employee per annum Productivity gains in traditional industries will be slowing down in coming years Unless we discover (more) oil or conduct a succesful war against rich neighbors our only option is to rely on our brains High-tech and high value-add: IT service industry (MicroLink): 3-4 X over traditional industries Top-class high-tech industry (SAF Tehnika): 7-8 X over traditional industries High-tech startups: low to medium No real Baltic high-tech industry yet Baltic ICT industry is mostly a service industry focused on local clients Increasing competition, growth limits Offshore programming industry relatively small Competitive advantage will further disappear Electronic manufacturing industry adds little value Thousands of people employed (Elcoteq, Ekranas etc) but value-add often very small Real high-tech: Tens of startups but no real success stories besides Skype or SAF Tehnika The lacking growth hormone High-tech industry means: Tens and hundreds of interlinked high-tech enterprises in clusters Synergy between univesities and businesses Well-developed financing market Well-developed labor market Venture culture Baltic high-tech ventures tend to stop growing when reaching 0.5-1 m EUR in revenues and size of 10-30 employees Lack of certain “growth hormone”? Components of high-tech hormone Economy = enterprises = enterpreneurs Knowledge economy = knowledge enterprises = knowledge enterpreneurs There will be no dramatic change unless Baltic enterpreneurs and capitalists discover high-tech as Next Big Thing The governments declare Knowledge Economy their top priority Univesities turn faces to business and vice versa Venture capital industry emerges Baltic high-tech venture capital Baltic