Recently, the USPTO released a paper titled "The Contribution of Startups, Venture Financing, and Patents to U.S. Agricultural Innovation". In order to evaluate the role of startups in the U.S. agricultural innovation ecosystem, the USPTO compiled a unique data set, which included 6,024 startups established from 1987 to 2019, detailing their financing life cycle, annual economic performance, and patent activities. One-third of the startups in the sample showed clear signs that they were contributing to innovation. However, many of them operate in industrial sectors or technology fields. Overall, external financing and startup patent applications have grown significantly during this period, and startups with patent applications have received more external financing than startups without patent applications.
The USPTO used discrete-time survival analysis to test factors associated with startups receiving investment and achieving successful financial exits. It found that startups that applied for patents were more likely to receive investment than those that did not. Patent applications also increased the relative likelihood of a successful financial exit, which was mainly achieved through mergers and acquisitions. Among the M&A exit cases reported by startups with patent portfolios, about one-third of the startups were acquired by established companies that were already conducting R&D in the agricultural field. Startups acquired by established companies had relatively large patent portfolios, which were cited more frequently but had a narrower technological focus.
