EIC Scaling Club's commitment to nurturing Europe's deep tech scale-ups is exemplified by the exceptional individuals who lend their expertise to the initiative. One such example is Patrik Sobocki, the New Biotech Platforms Group President, whose career journey from researcher to venture investor to EIC Board Member has equipped him with invaluable insights to share with the Club's member companies and other stakeholders.
The Group President brings a unique perspective to his role, shaped by his diverse background. "I'm a proud father of two daughters, living in Stockholm, but with Polish and Finnish roots," Patrik shares. This multicultural background has instilled in him a truly European outlook, driving his engagement in numerous European initiatives, including his current involvement with the EIC.
His professional journey is equally diverse and impressive. "I am a researcher turned serial entrepreneur turned venture investor," he summarizes succinctly. This path has been guided by a dedication to making a tangible impact, particularly in healthcare and life sciences. He explains:
"I’ve devoted a lot of my operational, entrepreneurial life to healthcare, life sciences, essentially making life better for patients and healthcare systems."
While his roots are in life sciences, his current role as a venture investor has broadened his scope. Leading the deep tech investment strategy at his firm, he now touches on a wide array of industries, backing disruptive technology companies across various sectors.
"I'm also quite involved in many ways, on a policy level, through EIC and individually, on how the scale-up challenge in Europe can be fixed," he adds.
Patrik's involvement with the EIC Scaling Club stems from a long-standing relationship with the organization. "I've participated in a number of EIC events over the past years, and I've also been a jury member in many parts of the EIC," he recounts. This engagement, coupled with his appointment to the EIC board, made his increased involvement a natural progression.
While Patrik brings to the table tremendous experience, passion, and enthusiasm for innovation, as Group President, he sees his role as that of a coordinator. Surrounded by tenured experts, Patrik is happy to be just a piece of the puzzle and leverage the geographical and sector-specific knowledge of his colleagues to discover Europe's deep tech winners of the future.
An initiative like EIC Scaling Club was badly needed, says Patrik, as it allows to showcase high potential innovations within the context of the sector. He clarifies:
"Here, particularly in life sciences and platforms and therapeutic development, potential isn't necessarily measured around revenue or financials, but rather around what milestones and evidence development has been achieved to take product to market."
To the scale-ups striving to make their mark, the Group President offers words of encouragement: "Persistence, stamina, and grit are even more important these days than in the past."
Patrik acknowledges that the post-Covid period has been difficult on innovators, but remains optimistic about the future, noting increased interest from investors, users, and even potential acquirers both within and outside the European Union.
His advice to founders is clear: "Continue being stubborn, have grit, and be clever on how you want to maneuver your journeys." More specifically, he emphasizes the importance of smart fundraising strategies, particularly for deep tech companies in the life sciences industry.
"You need to pay attention to how to populate your cap table, and how to best get smart money and patient capital into your venture – this will be of utmost importance going forward”.
In his role as Group President, Patrik is excited about the opportunities to learn and connect. "I look forward to getting to know all these fantastic people who have chosen to devote their time to taking European innovation to the next level," he says.
He's particularly enthusiastic about the upcoming event in Athens and the chance to delve deeper into Europe's deep tech scene – meet him at the Scale 100 Forum!
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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