It is often said that the United Kingdom and Europe lack the huge level of financing of growth for startups in the subsequent stage of the United States on its own, and this is true. According to the European Investment Fund, there are at least there Seven times more VC money is large in the United States from Europe. So the emergence of a new growth box in the UK is important.
Cambridge innovation as a capital (CIC), which is investing exclusively in the Cambridge Ecosystem system at the famous university and around it, launched a new “Opportunity Fund” worth 100 million pounds ($ 126 million), a basic growth fund. CIC 757 million has been invested in more than 40 companies and has a distinct relationship with Cambridge University.
The box is installed by Aviva Investors and the capital of the British patient and will invest in deep technology and life technology companies.
Investments have already been made. The semi -pragmatic conductors are a large oriental designer and a manufacturer that raised $ 389.3 million so far, while RiverlaneIt is a quantum computing error company that raised $ 120.7 million.
The new CIC fund will invest up to 20 million pounds (25.2 million dollars) for every investment in financing rounds of the last phase of deep technological sciences and life. Hope, of course, is to address the problem of the long -term UK gap for startups in the subsequent stage, which tends to lead to a depletion of those companies towards other countries, usually the United States.
In part, it is this issue that prompted the UK government to announce last month, the “artificial intelligence plan”-a series of measures designed to develop the economy using artificial intelligence, and included a pledge to build the “Silicon Valley” in Europe through the superior charging in Europe, systems Current technical ecosystems around the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In addition, the “Golden Triangle” in London, Oxford and Cambridge, which includes five universities in the leading UK, will get larger links, including transportation, along with a package of 14 billion pounds.
Andrew Williamson, CIC’s administrative partner, told TECHCRUNCH an invitation that CIC had traditionally invested in early companies about Cambridge, but there was a lot that was ripening in installed technologies.
Historically, what we did is when our companies reach the Class Class … We did not have the capital in our basic funds to make them [later stage] He said, “Investments.”
“So we are used to providing them with the joint investment of some of our LPS. But not many institutions, especially financial institutions, are really prepared to make direct investments in companies. So the genesis of this fund was one that they can participate in.”
He added that one of the main directives from the UK government to the British Business Bank is to address the gap at the following stage in the measuring capital: “That is why this is an ideal task for what they are looking for, to consolidate the new new growth money like this. In the case of Aviva, it is one of the signatories on The built -in palace house. So this is about allocating some capital of pension funds in the productive assets of growth. “
The CIC wallets include Gyroscope Therapeutics to Gyroscy Therapeutics to Novartis for $ 1.5 billion, 285 million dollars for PetMedix processing by Zoetis, and selling the liquid platform inivata to Neogenomics for $ 390 million, and selling Learn the sound, identify the sound developed voice.
Cambridge is famous for producing many important companies including ARM Holdings, ABCAM, Darktrace and Bicycle Therapics.
