Analysis of Growth Barriers and Impact of Policy Incentives to Deep Tech Company Evolution in Inching and Transformation Framework

The project proposal at hand contributes to building a Smart Economy. We focus on the question how deep tech startup companies evolve and how to enhance their success. The research contributes to resolving the following challenges addressed in Science, Development, Innovation and Entrepreneurship development plan (TAIE): how to implement research and development (RD) to the service of economic growth, increase productivity and added value, increase the RD expenses and create new jobs for scientists and engineers in private sector. The research studies the growth barriers faced by deep tech companies during different phases of their evolution and analyses which support can be provided by the innovation system and ecosystem to overcome those barriers. The research relies on an original growth framework that models the startup growth as achieving sequential milestones and going through transformations. Inspired by the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the model is called inching and transformation framework. The company growth trajectories and the effect of the support mechanisms are mapped and analysed in the model framework to map the gaps and address those with policy recommendations. The principal investigator has PhD in physics and has recently concluded her service as a CEO of a deep tech startup company she co-founded. The research will be supervised by the international scientific board and advisory board consisting of renown startup advisors, investors and founders. An extensive dataset, extending to year 2012, from a mentoring program called Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is used. CDL is among the 10 most active startup accelerators in the world according to CBInsights. The dataset is used to map the growth trajectories. For Estonian companies data from Statistics Estonia and Business Registry will be leveraged.