Let’s start with the definition of both concepts:
Deep Tech (or Hard Tech) is a classification of organization, typically a new company, with the express goal of providing technological solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges.
Deep Science involves massive financial investments in physical and technological infrastructure. It also requires long-term collaboration between and within organizations, employing some of the smartest people on the planet.
In the traditional startup world, larger industries are atomizing due to the consolidation and maturation of certain sectors and verticals.
We see the case of the Spanish company Glovo, which has just been acquired by the German giant Delivery Hero. Low-profit margins, economies of scale, and market dominance led to this transaction. But we can observe this phenomenon in more industries, such as Fintech, and E-Commerce, among others, where consumers don’t want just another app, leading to purchases and mergers for further growth.
Similarly, the investment world, especially at the early stage, is getting tired of the same projects, copy-cats of others, lacking true innovation, and where the only factor that could “ensure” some success is the capability of the team and the “time to market,” reaching the market at the right moment.
That’s why the concept of “Deep Tech & Deep Science,” although not new, is gaining prominence in many scenarios, precisely aided by the pandemic.
On one hand, society, in general, has raised its level of awareness of how important it is to have the most prepared minds, the best teams, tools, and funds, to achieve life-saving results in record time, as was the development of Covid vaccines.
The side of governments and academia (universities and their research centers, technological centers, etc.), have understood that humanity will continue advancing, improving, and surpassing itself as long as major capital approaches research centers to invest in projects that will disruptively innovate life as we know it.
Capital, especially conscious and triple-impact capital, has seen beyond exponential financial returns, regardless of consequences. They have recognized the transformative and even life-saving power of investing in the cradle of knowledge in the medium/long term, bringing together the best minds to do good for the human species.
That’s why companies like ours are so important, as they bring out the best in researchers, providing them with the necessary human and economic capital, and eliminating the barriers and risks associated with entrepreneurship. We follow a unique and atypical model, not charging any monetary fee to any party for their work but instead obtaining benefits (in shares of the sustainable companies created) once the objectives jointly set by researchers, capital, and us are achieved.
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