On a mission to unlock innovation capital.

New business models and disruptive technology are powerful engines of change. In Europe, unfortunately, not enough of the best and most ambitious ideas to tackle our world’s problems are being ventured into reality.

At equation, we build smart financial products to mobilize capital and move it towards the most meaningful destinations based on high quality decisions.

The innovation gap

The past 50 years have been dominated by the arrival of the Information Age. Progress is now often made in the world of bits and Europe has taken a backseat. The biggest stock-listed companies hail from the technology sector and are headquartered in the United States or China – and to a large extent these innovations were made possible with Venture Capital.

We must acknowledge: the innovation gap between Europe and the US, and notably China, is immense. The supply chain of innovation capital seems to be broken, and we must fix it.

Both founders of equation, Professor Reiner Braun and Mark Schmitz have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about solutions for the innovation gap. After working directly with the CIO of Allianz, Reiner moved back academia and applied his sharp academic-analytic lens in a study mandated by the National Academy Of Science and Engineering (acatech), in which the authors provided recommendations to enhance innovation by strengthening the European finance ecosystem. The study was well received by both policymakers and within the industry .

“Companies with high capital requirements shouldn’t have to turn to non-European investors simply because they can’t raise enough venture/growth capital in Europe. This purely capital-led exodus could be prevented by mobilising more domestic capital both in Germany and in Europe as a whole”

Mark had a front row seat observing the development of European VC activity over close to a decade in his capacity as founding team member and Partner at Lakestar. Lakestar is today one of Europe’s largest VC investors. Yet, there is a new breed of investors that need support and capital to make the European technology landscape catch-up to satisfactory, GDP-adjusted levels. There is still a lot to do in order to bring attractive private market investments closer to the levels of US endowments, foundations, pension funds and insurance companies.

Creating equation

equation is the logical conclusion of all our previous activities and beliefs. Our mission is to create improved, resilient financial products and tooling to move capital where it is needed.

Our products meet institutional standards because they need to. Deploying a technology- and evidence-driven investment model, we are working to close the European innovation gap, drive better returns and enable more entrepreneurship and funding structures to emerge.