I don't think that's necessarily true. Industry is mostly interested in things that are almost ready to be translated into a product. Foundations can be very conservative (and the grant sizes are often much smaller).

Anyway, mechanisms like what you're proposing do exist (MITACS in Canada, for example). However, the problem is the other end of the pipeline. How can you pitch investors on something that might not be a product for decades, if at all? Government R&D primes that pump.