Noctua Science Ventures raises €15M
Noctua Science Ventures, a specialised pre-seed fund for research-based deeptech spin-offs from Austria, has successfully completed its first closing at €15 million and has begun investing. First close investors include ERSTE Group, Verbund and Allocator One.
Originally founded as a joint venture between Speedinvest and TU Wien, Noctua has now expanded its shareholder base to include further leading technical universities. TU Wien, TU Graz, Montanuniversität Leoben, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (“BOKU”) and Johannes Kepler University Linz are now part of the operating company behind Noctua, anchoring the fund in Austria’s research system.
According to Philipp Stangl, Investment Lead, Noctua Science Ventures: “Cutting-edge research only realises its full value once it finds its way to market – but private funding for high-risk deep-tech projects is often lacking. With our first closing, we are stepping into this gap and supporting the next generation of spin-offs from their very first financing round.”
Noctua plans to make up to ten investments per year and can commit up to €500,000 per spin-off as lead investor in the very first financing round.
This allows research grants to be leveraged to best effect and sound structures to be put in place from the outset. Particular emphasis is placed on a well-considered tech transfer and IP strategy from an early stage, on complementing scientist-founders with experienced entrepreneurs, and on a future-proof cap table.
The fund invests on a technology-agnostic basis at the pre-seed stage in the most promising spin-off teams across Austria – explicitly including spin-offs from institutions outside its shareholder group. Further selection criteria are scalability, market size and defensibility.
