Bridging The Valley:

Over the past 5 years, NLC has been able to secure (seed) financing for over 40 of its portfolio ventures. Having said that, we are seeing that it is becoming increasingly difficult for early stage start-ups to successfully navigate through the well-known ‘Valley of Death’. This development can largely be explained by looking at the way traditional VC funds are set up, as well as the fragmented nature of the European angel investor landscape and a lack of collaboration and shared learnings amongst early-stage start-ups.

Lars Olthof, member of the NLC Venture Finance team, has written a paper to further examine some of the causes which are at the core of this ‘funding gap’, whilst offering three concrete solutions to turn early stage investments into a highly investable asset class.

We call upon all players in the industry to work together to enable a thriving European start-up ecosystem in the years to come. We greatly welcome your feedback, and would love to hear your ideas how we can further accelerate promising early-stage innovations!