Europe INNOVA - Partnerships for better innovation support

On 19 January, the MOBICAP Consortium met in Brussels at the offices of Banca Intesa San Paolo for its kick-off meeting. MOBICAP is an “access to finance” action under the European Mobile and Mobility Industries Alliance (EMMIA).

MOBICAP’s general aim is to tackle the funding gap for early-stage Mobile/Mobility Service Industries (MMSI) by facilitating access to finance for MMSI, in particular for young innovative start-ups, and by addressing key challenges such as poor investment readiness in the sector. It will also establish a new pan-European risk capital investment facility with a view to leveraging 50+  million Euros in favour of MMSI. At the same time, MOBICAP will provide policy lessons and operational insights to the EMMIA Policy Learning Platform by involving policy agencies from MMSI industry clusters across Europe.

Specifically, MOBICAP will:

i)                   create an online and on-field coaching community to speed up the selection of investment-ready SMEs and train those chosen for the initial approach to investors;

ii)                 develop a tailored seed fund and identify co-investment best practices;

iii)               stimulate the participation of private and public capital; and

iv)              connect to markets and eco-systems.

First steps towards achieving the project goals include surveying and categorising existing MMSI, organising matchmaking road shows in several European cities, building up the online coaching platform, and engaging with potential investors and actors in the funding chain.

The MOBICAP consortium is led by SpaceTec Capital Partners of Munich (Germany), who have a long track record in early-stage investment and coaching. The other partners are:  Banca Intesa San Paolo - one of the top ten banking groups in Europe, with long experience in start-up initiatives and venture funds; the European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) which is based in Brussels and has an excellent background in interdisciplinary innovation; FILAS which manages regional early-stage funds in the Lazio Region of Italy and the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), which are renowned experts on the mobile development scene. As such, the consortium combines complementary competences along the funding chain.

PROJECT FAME KICKS OFF TO

SUPPORT THE EUROPEAN

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Rome, Italy – Jan. 16, 2012 – Project FAME invites all high-growth Creative Industry companies to the Fame Screening and Financing Forums.

Project FAME is a newly established cross-border European partnership bringing together four partners with extensive expertise and experience in financing promising companies in the Creative Industries (CI) sector.

The Fame Financing Screening and Financing Process will be open to select high-growth-ready SMEs operating in the Creative Industries. This investment-readiness accelerator includes a number of business innovation support services including: initial screening stages for all eligible applicants; ad-hoc coaching support, mock-pitching training exercises, on-field evaluation and pitching sessions to interested investors as well the establishment of a strong Creative Industries finance facility with a pan-European dimension.

The Network will hold 3 major fora in Denmark, Germany and Italy (time and exact location tba) at which scalable and high-growth CI companies will be selected to participate in the investment-readiness elevator and financing leverage workshops.

The main objective of Project FAME is to mobilize new financing sources and develop a dedicated Pan-EU Fund for CI companies. In order to attain this ambitious goal, the PROJECT FAME will be analysing the provision of finance currently available to CIs, increase the investment-readiness of innovating CI businesses via the Fame Screening and Financing Process and seek to increase the overall awareness and interest in the vast investment potential of CI businesses.

Project FAME Coordinator Michela Michilli (FILAS) underlined how the network “will allow the cross-cultural exchange of knowledge, competencies and partnerships to create the legal framework for a pan-European fund for the Creative Industries. The digital revolution continues to change many sectors very rapidly, so we must identify new companies that need an international business model and financial support to fully blossom.”

EU Project Officer Alessandro Talacchi concurred, stressing the fact that “Fame is a key element in the innovation strategy the EC is putting forward. Project Fame will provide a number of methods to see how to establish a pan-EU Investment Fund to support the Creative Industries in Europe.”

Indeed, the Creative Industries is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in the European Economy and as Rasmus Wiinstedt Tscherning (Ceo CKO) pointed out “they are faring far better than banks, airlines, pharmaceutical companies and other sectors in the current financial crisis.”

Klaus Haasis (Baden Württemberg Connected) remarked “the next big step in innovation and competitiveness is to bring the CIs and traditional industries closer together. The convergence of different CI areas is evident, for example, in the gamification of the training, simulation and education sectors.”

Kim Ove Olsen similarly emphasised the increasing development of a core CI area, which “catalysed by the digital revolution, will lead to a more integrated approach in investments as is presently taking place in the newspaper, television and publishing sectors.”

PROJECT FAME partners are FILAS - Financial Development Agency of the Lazio Region (Italy), BWCON – Baden Württemberg Connected (Germany), CAT SCIENCE PARK (Denmark) and CKO – Centre for Culture and Experience Economy Denmark.

Project FAME is co-financed by the CIP Programme under the new European Creative Industry Alliance and aims to facilitate a wide-scale and sustainable impact on the level of finance available to support the development and competitiveness of European high-growth Creative Industries businesses.

If you wish to access the presentations of the event please click on the name of each project partner.

For further information:

Michela Michilli

Fame Project Director

michilli@filas.it

On 8-9 December, DG Enterprise and Industry organised an expert workshop in Copenhagen in cooperation with the Danish Center for Culture and Experience Economy to discuss and better define the concept of large-scale demonstrators as a tool for modern industrial policy and to assess its role and potential contribution to addressing societal challenges and facilitating regional wealth creation and economic growth.

During the workshop, some 45 experts and practitioners from throughout Europe reviewed good practice large-scale demonstrator examples in the areas of creative industries, mobile services and the experience economy through the “triple A” perspective of analysis - what is the potential economic importance of this industry, which actors should be involved and what are their roles, and which activities should be supported and developed.

In his welcome address, the Danish Minister for Business and Growth, Mr Ole Sohn, said that the upcoming Danish EU Presidency would focus on creating economic growth but the immediate challenges facing Europe “must not dilute the efforts having long-term impacts and the experience economy is a fundamental part of my Government’s strategy to get the Danish and European economy back on a healthy growth track”. He also reminded the participants of the African proverb “If you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together” and emphasized that “we must work closely together across the EU in order to be successful”.

Further insights into the Danish position on innovation were provided by Thomas Alslev Christensen from the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, Finn Lauritzen, Director of the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority and Rasmus Wiinstedt Tscherning from the Center for Culture and Experience Economy.

All speakers stressed the importance of investing more into research and innovation, which was however not considered as sufficient to create new competitive advantages for global competition.

The “Danish way” to innovation is very much characterised by capitalising on all forms of creativity, including design, and shaping new business opportunities through networking among professionals from different sectors. In this respect, the audience was reminded that 12% of the Danish GDP could be attributed to the experience economy, which is at the crossroad between creative industries, fashion and tourism.

The large-scale demonstrator examples and the lively discussions highlighted the transformative power of innovation” and how creativity can be captured to offer experiences that make people leave home, but they also showed that it requires someone with a vision or ambition to take the lead to bring the right people around the table who have the courage to make difficult choices in order to map out a winning strategy. This was illustrated by the mayor of Obidos in Portugal, Mr Telmo Faria, who said “I believe in knowledge, those who have knowledge will survive even if we don’t know what the future will bring. But politicians don’t pay attention to creative thinkers or entrepreneurs, they don’t talk to people”.  

Many speakers referred to the fact that it is often difficult “to see the forest for the trees” when you’re part of “the problem” so there was general agreement that more should be invested in identifying the problem or vision and  also that outside peer review should be an integral part of the process: As expressed by Jörgen Stenberg, an automotive testing entrepreneur from Northern Sweden: “Lapland needs more Germans” – not only as tourists but as new settlers because they view the landscape with the eyes of a tourist and see opportunities and added value in things the indigenous population just takes for granted.

In his closing remarks, Reinhard Büscher of DG Enterprise and Industry reflected that the workshop would help change the mindset towards not only doing the right things but also doing things right or differently by changing the way we work. It had made the large-scale demonstrator storyline more robust showing the advantages of a systemic approach based on resilient eco-systems and betting not on good or better practice but on “next practice”.

The workshop presentations are available here.

To download the programme, please click here.