EP10 - Why University Venture Capital Hasn't Scaled - Yet

University venture capital sits in a paradox.

On one side, universities produce some of the most advanced research in the world.
On the other hand, the capital structures around that research remain fragmented, inefficient, and difficult for institutional investors to engage with.

This is not a talent problem.
It is a systems problem.

The Structural Mismatch

Venture capital operates on clarity, scale, and comparability.
Universities operate on the basis of diversity, autonomy, and institutional complexity.

Both make sense in isolation.
Together, they create friction.

For a limited partner, the decision is not only about potential returns.
It is about accessibility.

Each university fund often comes with its own governance model, IP policy, and operational logic.
From the outside, this looks like fragmentation.

From the inside, it feels natural.

This mismatch is one of the main reasons why university venture capital struggles to attract sufficient LP commitments.

Not because the opportunity is weak.
But because the entry point is unclear.

The Fundraising Bottleneck

Most universities approach fundraising individually.

They engage with family offices, fund of funds, or institutional investors individually.
Each has a relatively small fund size.
Each has limited deal flow visibility.

From the LP perspective, this creates two challenges.

First, ticket size.
Institutional capital requires deployment at scale.

Second, opportunity scope.
A single university fund offers a narrow slice of the market.

This leads to a structural inefficiency.
Capital is available, but it cannot find a sufficiently compelling, aggregated entry point.

A Shift in Perspective

The question is not whether university venture capital should exist.
It already does.

The question is how to make it investable at scale.

One possible answer lies in coordination.

Consider a scenario where multiple universities align their fundraising efforts. Not to merge into a single entity, but to create a shared interface for investors.

This changes the dynamic.

A coordinated group offers larger ticket opportunities.
It provides a broader, more diversified deal flow.
It introduces a level of standardization that institutional investors understand.

The shift is subtle but powerful.

From isolated nodes to a connected system.

Standardization Without Loss of Identity

There is often a concern that coordination leads to loss of independence.

In practice, the opposite can be true.

Standardizing certain elements, such as reporting, governance frameworks, or IP principles, does not remove identity.
It removes friction.

It creates a common language.

And language is what enables capital to move efficiently.

The goal is not uniformity.
It is interoperability.

Beyond Capital: The Role of Connection

Capital alone does not build ecosystems.

Relationships do.

In fragmented environments, valuable connections happen by chance.
In structured environments, they happen by design.

This is where curated interaction becomes critical.

Targeted events, structured matchmaking, and pre-aligned interests can transform passive networks into active collaboration platforms.

The difference is intention.

Instead of hoping the right people meet, the system ensures they do.

The Human Layer

Despite all structural arguments, one element remains constant.

Trust.

Institutional investors do not allocate capital to spreadsheets.
They allocate to people.

A coordinated ecosystem increases not only visibility but also credibility.
It allows relationships to form over time.
It creates repeated interaction.

And trust, once established, compounds.

From Fragmentation to Flow

University venture capital does not need reinvention.

It needs alignment.

The opportunity is already there.
The research exists.
The founders are emerging.

What is missing is the structure that allows capital, knowledge, and relationships to flow.

In complex systems, structure is often misunderstood as control.

In reality, the right structure creates movement.

It removes noise.
It clarifies direction.
It enables scale.

The future of university venture capital will not be defined by isolated excellence.

It will be defined by connected systems that turn that excellence into something investable, scalable, and real.

Timecode:

00:00 M2.3 The missed opportunity in fundraising for venture capital funds

00:00 M2.3 Addressing Fundraising Challenges

02:17 (Q to Karoly) Event Planning and Execution

Links:

Karoly Szanto LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karolyszanto1/

Karoly Szanto Personal Website: https://www.karolyszanto.com/

UniPrisma: https://uniprisma.com/

Guests:

Thijmen Meijer: https://www.thijmenmeijer.com/

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Karoly: University venture capital is not attracting enough. LPs and enough LP commitments, and there are many reasons for that. One reason we have already discussed, which is the way universities work is not compliant with the venture capital world. That problem can be solved through sharing best practices, standardizing processes, IP policies, and whatnot.

[00:00:32] Karoly: Then there is a huge missed opportunity in the fundraising. Yes, universities will invest into their own funds, but they will always look for co-investors from financial investors, fund of funds, pension funds, family offices, whatnot. But they are doing it one by one, and many of these appies they need.

[00:00:59] Karoly: First of they need larger ticket sizes, but they also need a larger opportunity. And imagine this, what if, let's say 20 universities would combine their fundraising, and there are already actually examples of universities pulling together like three universities creating one common venture fund. The three of them, obviously it's a lot easier and meaningful to fundraise for that fund.

[00:01:37] Karoly: I'm not saying Europe only has to have one university venture capital fund, no way. But for sure the volume of potential investments once the community pulled together. That's a huge opportunity for LPs as well, a centralized point of deal flow, standardized processes and IP policies instead of a fragmented, non-compliant environment.

[00:02:06] Karoly: So our initiative, should and will enable the universities to be a lot more efficient in LP fundraising. 

[00:02:17] Thijmen: 

[00:02:17] Thijmen: how do you imagine these events actually in the, you were talking about the three events, uh, offline, uh, online, sorry. and one of them offline. How do you, how do you envision them? And who do you want to, who is part of the, who's part of it?

[00:02:33] Karoly: Yeah. So. For the University Venture Capital Coalition, we plan four major annual events. Three of them, online, one in person, and the volume of the event and the relevance of the event will be. Maximized, in a way that we expect at least 1000 participants per event, relevant participants.

[00:03:04] Karoly: By that I mean investors, venture capital investors, LPs and universities, tech transfer offices. additionally it'll attract a lot of, other entities for sure. Innovation hubs, accelerators, venture studios service providers, policy makers, and so on. But I think if you look around, in the ecosystem, you will probably not find any other event. That is so much targeted on the university venture capital and can attract at least 1000 relevant players. So that's the value we are providing. And also I think, this would be already game changer. But on top of that, we plan to have meaningful conversation in smaller groups. So before the event, of course we do our research.

[00:04:07] Karoly: We ask the participants, about their interest, what partners they're looking for, investors or another university or spinoffs so we can actually match them. So it's also a matchmaking event because eventually we want to facilitate connections and business and investments.

[00:04:27] Thijmen: And the good thing is it also works together with the platform that we are, making. 

[00:04:32] Karoly: Exactly. And, just one more thing to add to that, that, as we are both big believers in the in-person meeting, online is great. it's very efficient, but to build up, valuable connections and human connections, you actually. Sooner or later, you have to spend time together and we wanna make this happen for the key stakeholders so that they can develop long-term partnerships.