Cambridge alumnus Williamson has joined the university venturing fund after 20 years in the US, most recently at True North Venture Partners.
UK-based university venturing fund Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) named Andrew Williamson, a former partner at True North Venture Partners, as investment director yesterday.
Before taking on the role of partner at True North, Williamson served as managing director at two other VC funds, Physic Ventures and MalibulQ. He led materials science and semiconductor research in US government research laboratories for ten years prior to becoming a venture capitalist.
A Cambridge University graduate, Williamson earned a master’s degree in natural sciences and a doctorate in physics from his alma mater. He moved to the US to pursue an academic career, and holds a master of business administration degree from Berkeley’s Haas Business School, where he had a staff position for a time.
Victor Christou, CEO of tech and healthcare-focused CIC, said: “[Williamson] brings a perfect combination of the ideal attributes for a CIC investment director with hands-on experience building deep technology businesses, coupled with a venture investing background and an understanding of Cambridge and its academic institutes.
“Taken together, these position him ideally for a role investing in the most exciting cluster in Europe.”
Williamson said: “When I left Cambridge 20 years ago there was very little entrepreneurship and innovation going on here. Cambridge has always been world class in its fundamental academic research but there was less of a culture of entrepreneurship.
“In the last 20 years that has completely changed. If you look at where new startups are being created from fundamental research coming out of universities, the most innovative regions are: number one Silicon Valley, number two Boston, and now number three in the world is the Cambridge cluster.
“We are out there talking about what makes a good business, and encouraging people to come to us with ideas; we do not always invest first time, but hopefully we give constructive feedback, and over time that enriches the whole community and improves the investment opportunities that we see.”
