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A enterprise capital group backed by Cambridge college has launched a brand new £100mn fund to spend money on start-ups within the area, bolstering the UK authorities’s plan for increased schooling establishments to drive extra financial progress.
The brand new alternatives fund from Cambridge Innovation Capital consists of vital “anchor” funding from British Affected person Capital, a subsidiary of the government-owned British Enterprise Financial institution, and Aviva Traders.
It’s the group’s first fund for bets on so-called scale-ups, comparatively superior start-ups which have confirmed their enterprise fashions and need to develop quickly, whereas its different funds are centered on investing in firms which might be in earlier levels of improvement.
Andrew Williamson, the fund’s managing associate, stated its aim was to seek out “the subsequent DeepMind, the subsequent Arm, the subsequent AstraZeneca — I feel we’ve acquired a few of these in our portfolio and this fund shall be scaling these up”.
CIC, which has greater than £600mn of belongings beneath administration, is backed by Cambridge college and has particular entry to offers coming from the upper schooling establishment. It specialises in investing in firms spun out from college analysis, significantly in life sciences and “deep tech” — improvements primarily based on elementary scientific advances.
The brand new fund has already backed its first two firms — chip designer and producer Pragmatic Semiconductor and quantum group Riverlane, that are each primarily based in Cambridge:
The fundraising comes simply weeks after the UK authorities revived a strategic plan to construct up transport and housing between its prime two universities, Oxford and Cambridge. Science secretary Peter Kyle stated the federal government needed to double the financial output of the “Oxford-Cambridge Arc”.
Williamson, who additionally co-chaired a assessment of the UK’s college spinouts, stated the brand new fund “aligns fantastically” with the federal government’s plan. “What the federal government is doing appropriately is the place are essentially the most impactful investments,” he stated.
Cambridge Innovation Capital is one of some VC teams searching for to again firms popping out of UK universities.
Different funds searching for to again firms popping out of UK universities embrace Oxford Science Enterprises, which was based in 2015; and Northern Gritstone, which is aimed toward start-ups from Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield universities.
Northern Gritstone launched in 2021 and raised funds price over £300mn in 2023. The group is elevating funds from new and current traders with a aim of elevating £50mn in additional capital, in response to an individual aware of the matter. Northern Gritstone declined to remark.
CIC’s Williamson stated the brand new fund aimed to shut a financing hole for superior start-ups within the UK which have hassle discovering home backers.
“By the point you get to this ‘scale-up’ stage, 80 to 90 per cent of the capital is coming from abroad traders. We welcome the international funding however there’s room for home funds to take part.”
