The LEADERSHIP4SMEs project has a goal of increasing awareness of the importance of intellectual property rights among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. They intend to create more awareness about the cost benefits that can be achieved through business integration, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, citizens, investors, and governments. To do this, they hope to better inform SMEs on how to protect their IPR and how to manage it in order to make their businesses stronger.

The project partners released a report: "Leveraging Intellectual Properties for Start-up and SME Hypergrowth:Leveraging Intellectual Properties for Start-up and SME Hypergrowth: Towards Holistic Support Services"

This document focuses on the leveraging of intellectual property rights (IPRs) for gaining access to finance as a key route to hyper-growth for SMEs and start-ups. Access to finance is critical for SMEs and start-ups, who often lack the financial capacities to commercialise their ideas. The issue is particularly acute for high-technology companies, which typically require high levels of investment, involve high levels of risk, and own a significant share of intangible assets whose value is difficult to assess (Denoncourt, 2017; Di Pietro, 2016; OECD, 2015). Financial investors and bankers are therefore frequently reluctant to finance such companies.

Click here to download the report.

Partner organisations: BWCON GMBH (DE), Iceberg Consulting SRL (RO), Innova SRL (IT), Bugnion SPA (IT), CNRS Innovation (FR), Aster Capital Partners (FR), Banca Comerciala Romana SA (RO).