It is often said that the United Kingdom and Europe do not have the enormous level of funding for growth for startups at a later stage that the United States has for itself, and it is correct. According to the European Investment Fund, there are at least Seven times more Large VC funds in the United States in Europe. The appearance of a new growth fund in the United Kingdom is therefore important.
Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), which invests exclusively in the Cambridge ecosystem in and around the famous university, launched a new opportunity fund of 100 million pounds Sterling (126 million dollars), essentially a growth fund. The CIC has $ 757 million invested in more than 40 companies and has a privileged relationship with the University of Cambridge.
The fund is anchored by Aviva Investors and British Patient Capital and will invest in deep technology and life sciences in growth scene.
Two investments have already been made. Pragmatic semiconductor is a great designer and manufacturer of fleas that has collected $ 389.3 million to date, while Emptyis a quantum calculation error correction company that has raised $ 120.7 million.
The new CIC fund will invest up to 20 million pounds Sterling ($ 25.2 million) by investment in financing series at a subsequent stage of business and life sciences. Hope, of course, is to solve the problem of the long-standing financing gap in the United Kingdom for startups at a later stage, which tends to lead to a drain from these companies to other countries, generally The United States.
It was partly this problem that led the British government to announce last month, its “AI action plan” – a series of measures designed to develop the economy using AI, and included A commitment to build the “Silicon Valley” in Europe by superloads existing technological ecosystems around the famous universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In addition, the London “gold triangle”, Oxford and Cambridge, including five major British universities, will also receive larger links, including transport, as well as a set of 14 billion pounds of funding.
Andrew Williamson, Director Partner at CIC, told Techcrunch for a call that CIC had traditionally invested in companies at the start of Cambridge class, but there were many who matured in proven technologies.
“Historically, what we have done is when our companies arrive at scene C…. We did not have the capital in our basic funds to make them [later stage] investments, “he said.
“So we used to offer them as a co-investment to some of our LPs. But few institutions, in particular financial institutions, are really set up to make direct investments in companies. Thus, the genesis of this fund was the one in which they could participate. »»
He added that one of the key directives of the British government at the British Business Bank is to fill the gap of subsequent stadium in the capital of the scale: “It is therefore a perfect mission for what they seek to to anchor new growth funds like this. In the case of Aviva, they are one of the signatories of the Mansion House Compact. It is therefore a question of distributing part of their capital of retirement funds into productive growth assets. »»
CIC portfolio outputs include the sale of the Gyroscope Therapeutics gene therapy company in Novartis for $ 1.5 billion, the acquisition of $ 285 million from the Petmedix pet treatment developer by Zoetis, the sale of The Inivata liquid biopsy platform in Neogenomics for $ 390 million and the sale of Solid recognition of recognition of your healthy to an audio analytical developer recognition.
Cambridge is best known for producing several important companies, including Arm Holdings, Abcam, Darktrace and Bicycle Therapeutics.
