KU Leuven has generated 60 spinouts since 2000, the most of any Flemish region university, while digital-focused research centre IMinds topped the bill for Flemish strategic institutes.
Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven has spawned the most spinouts of any Flemish university since 2000, generating a total of 60 businesses compared with 39 from its nearest challenger Ghent University, according to the Christian-Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V).
University of Antwerp incorporated 22 spinouts during the period, followed by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Hasselt University on 16 and 9 spinouts respectively.
The report stated that 16.7% of the R&D conducted at Flemish higher education institutions was funded by the private sector. In addition to spinouts, businesses have been launched from the region’s four strategic research institutes, led by digital-focused centre IMinds, which has formed 27 companies since 2000.
Nanoelectronics research institute Imec and biotech-focused Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie ranked second and third with 19 and 13 spinouts respectively.
CD&V estimated Flemish institutions had created a total of 76 spinouts in the period from 2008-2012, amounting to an annual average of 5.6 spinouts per year for KU Leuven, 4.6 for Ghent, 2 for Antwerp, 1.6 for VUB and 1.4 for Hasselt. For universities across the EU, the average is reportedly 1.7 spinouts.
However, most of the spinouts find scaling is a challenge. CD&V claimed only 5 spinouts in the region currently have a headcount of more than 50.
Support available to spinouts in the Flemish region includes the Sofi 1 and Sofi 2 financing instruments, which provide mainly loans backing businesses launched from strategic research institutes and universities respectively.
Sofi 1 has invested a total of €5.5m ($6.2m) since 2011, luring more than $12.4m in external capital for its clients, while Sofi 2 has pumped more than $1.9m into university-founded companies.
