A short excursion into economic history
My first exposure to private equity came in the late 2000s during what was often called the golden age of PE. While leading the Central and Eastern European market for a Milan and Warsaw based management consultancy our firm helped establish a private-equity vehicle for a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund.
What impressed me most was the extreme specialisation of the partners. A discussion about financing a construction-material manufacturer brought experienced engineers, production-facility experts and marketing and sales specialists from that exact vertical to the same table.
The ICT jump-and-dump pandemic
At the same time a growing number of venture firms and accelerators claimed to incubate companies across almost every domain. Many lacked a focused vertical, regional knowledge or staff with highly specific operating experience.
The resulting spray-and-pray logic assumed that one extraordinary outcome could compensate for a large portfolio of misses. Widespread disillusionment followed and promising hard-technology companies entered an era of scarcer capital.
European innovation ecosystems were particularly vulnerable when they imported Silicon Valley playbooks without accounting for the distinct capital needs, timelines and infrastructure demands of ScienceTech.
The renaissance of specialised capital
When I joined Ecolation in late 2025 to support the team’s finance and fundraising work I encountered a highly professional part of the venture market: investors specialised in ScienceTech and DeepScience.
Conversations with focused investors accelerated our learning curve because they understood the technical questions, certification pathway and industrial logic. Generalist investors often regarded the company as simply too early because they lacked the framework to evaluate it.
In early-stage deeptech the right investor contributes a specialised ecosystem, not capital alone.
Be smart about whose capital you accept
Specialisation adds much more than the capability to evaluate a startup. Focused investors can support a company through relevant relationships, operating knowledge and action-oriented advice. They can help founders anticipate industrial risks and connect technical progress with a credible financing path.
Founders should therefore choose investors as carefully as investors choose companies. The strongest angels and venture firms are not defined by one lucky exit. They are able to reproduce success because they combine experience, discipline and sector-specific understanding.
That is the opportunity behind a renaissance of specialised private equity and venture capital: a return to deep expertise as the standard for backing complex companies.