How governments seek to bridge the financing gap for university spin-offs: proof-of-concept, pre-seed, and seed funding

University spin-offs often develop early-stage technologies characterised by long development paths and uncertain commercial potential. Private financiers, such as banks, informal investors, and venture capital firms, are reluctant to invest in these ventures at an early stage. To bridge this financing gap, governments have set up specialised programmes, but few studies have examined the rationale and organisation of different types of programmes. We analyse government schemes in six countries and identify three main categories of funding initiatives. Proof-of-concept (PoC) schemes aim to reduce the technological uncertainty. Pre-seed schemes aim to reduce the organisational uncertainty and make the nascent venture attractive to investors. Seed funding schemes provide early-stage equity financing. The seed funding initiatives seek to improve the supply of funding, while there seems to be an increasing number of pre-seed and PoC schemes seeking to bridge the financing gap from the demand-side by increasing the attractiveness of the spin-offs towards investors.