Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), the VC firm investing in the UK’s highest-potential deep tech and life sciences companies, is committing at least £100M (approximately €115M) to invest in spinouts from the University of Cambridge.
The funding will seek to take advantage of the vast commercial potential in science and technology innovation developed by Cambridge researchers and follows a series of recent initiatives from the university designed to support entrepreneurial academics. These include plans for four million sq. ft of high-tech development at Cambridge West and a new Innovation Hub in central Cambridge to host spinouts, startups, and entrepreneurs.
“In 2024, the University of Cambridge created more spinout companies than any other university. It has also produced the most unicorns of any European ecosystem and generates £23 billion in economic interest linked to research and commercialisation each year,” noted Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Cambridge.
To coincide with the funding commitment, CIC is launching a new Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) programme, in partnership with the university, to identify IP with the potential for commercialisation and support academic founders as they begin to build a company. By matching experienced deep tech and life sciences executives, many of whom have achieved significant exits with their previous businesses, with academics and high-potential IP, the EIR programme will increase the number of quality spinouts and accelerate the path towards viable commercialisation of the technology. The EIR programme will maintain a rolling cohort of up to six EIRs.
This is the latest initiative to support spinouts from the university. The University of Cambridge, through its innovation business, Cambridge Enterprise, has also launched the Founders programme to support new company creation; the Translational Investment Fund (TIF), a new proof of concept fund to de-risk world class research and enable faster commercialisation; and invested an additional £30M of new capital into the £100M AUM Cambridge Enterprise Ventures (CEV) fund to support increasing University investment in spinouts.
CIC is committing at least £100M as part of the launch of Fund III, its latest £250M early-stage venture fund focused on the Cambridge ecosystem, to invest in University of Cambridge spinouts. Companies created within the EIR programme can access the new funding to support development from inception through proof-of-concept to early-stage growth.
