Russia lags behind the leaders in investment in high technology hundreds of times
The volume of investments in high-tech companies is a key tool for innovative development for most states. Today, in the conditions of a post-industrial service economy, those who want to remain in the group of leaders will inevitably invest in high-tech areas.
Employees Russian Cluster Observatory Institute for Statistical Research and Economic Research Higher School of Economics (hereinafter referred to as RKO) implemented the global scale of investment activity in high-tech. What does Russia look like against the general background?
How many leaders are investing in high-tech?
In terms of total investment in exclusive companies in 2021, in the first place of residence in the United States ($353.8 billion). They are followed by China (91.3), the UK (54.9), India (41.7) and Australia (25.5). Together, companies operating in these five countries account for 72.9% of investments, with the lion’s share of investments coming from the United States.
Russia is in 38th place with an import volume of 0.8 billion US dollars (only high-tech companies registered in the Russian Federation were taken into account in the calculations).
The volume of investments in high-tech companies is calculated for 133 countries, which account for 98.4% of all offers in the high-tech market. The analysis took into account investments at an early stage of seed, venture rounds, investments from business angels, convertible loans, corporate rounds, equity crowdfunding and private equity.
SCHEDULE
Positions of Russia on investments in high technologies
An analysis of investments shows that Russia received from the US 440 times or more than 40.000%, and from China 114 times. The top five also included the UK ($54.9 billion), India ($41.7 billion) and Australia ($25.5 billion). Tiny Singapore, smaller than Moscow within the Moscow Ring Road, has invested 12 times more in high technology in 2021 than Russia.
Where there is money, there is talent
Specialists RKO also analyzed the relationship between the volume of investment in high-tech and significant indicators of the innovative development of countries, such as: the number of unicorn companies, corporations with huge R&D spending, the number of highly cited scientists, Nobel and Fields Prize winners.
Unicorns are companies that have reached their highest valuation of US$1 billion within 10 years or less of their fall. At the same time, the shares of “unicorns” are not listed on the stock exchange, that is, they do not go through an IPO, and the company remains in the ownership of its creators by at least three-quarters. The list of technology companies with large expenditures on research and development in the world included 2,500 companies. This list of meetings is commissioned by the Commission Commission.
Greatest connection to scientists RKO managed to establish between the indicators of investment volume and profits of unicorn companies, as well as to have highly cited scientists, a slightly lower correlation with Nobel and Fields Prize winners and leaders in the creative industries, and also be located in the countries of the oil and gas industry. A high degree of correlation indicates pronounced attraction of leaders of economic knowledge to those located in countries with vast oceans.
Thus, the top 5 countries in terms of investment in high-tech (USA, China, UK, India, Australia) account for more than 60% of companies with high costs for research and development, 78.9% of unicorn companies, 65.9% of highly cited scientists and 64.8% of Nobel and Fields Prize winners. These five countries (Germany, France, Canada, Brazil, Saudi Arabia) account for 8.9% of significant investment income, 8.1% of unicorns, 12.6% of highly cited scientists, and 10.9% of Nobel and Fields Prize winners.
Why does Russia need to invest in high-tech?
If you look at the profile of Russia, you can see that talent (and simple offers to invest in new ideas) outweigh financial opportunities (offer from all types of cases). Russia ranks 7th in the world among living Nobel and Fields Laureates, 18th in terms of leaders in the creative industries, and 35th in terms of highly cited scientists. In this area, high-tech and general assessments of Russia suggest that even in the country there is a low degree of investment in high-tech companies.
In comments to the study, Director of the Russian Cluster Observatory Center Evgeny Kutsenko writes:
“Investors who have experienced successful investments in high-tech companies are a separate and rare cohort. typical participation in transactions with large foreign companies (Tencent, Xiaomi, Alibaba). And here we need to think about bilateral support: both those who accept breakthrough market projects, and those who are willing to risk investing in them.