Institutions including Purdue, Florida and Pittsburgh have ended the academic year with TTOs breaking their own records year-on-year.
Florida University’s Office of Technology Licensing, Purdue University’s Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialisation and Pittsburgh University’s Innovation Institute have each broken their own tech transfer records this academic year.
Florida signed 122 licences and options and generated 17 new businesses, a 43% increase over the previous year when the institution inked 85 licences. The boost has been ascribed partly to more than $700m in research funding and the economic climate.
Purdue meanwhile set up 27 new spinouts – the third year running that the institution has broken its own record. In 2014, it spun out 24 companies and in 2015 it created 25. The university also celebrated a 12.2% year-on-year increase in licences, from 131 to 147.
Pittsburgh founded 13 new businesses, up by two compared with five years ago. Innovation Institute has not released details on the number of licences, but income increased 19% from $6m to $7.3m for that same five-year period. Pittsburgh’s success follows the university’s decision to consolidate its commercialisation activities in 2013 under the Innovation Institute.
Not to be left behind by its US peers, Canada’s Saskatchewan University ended its academic year with an announcement that it has partnered patent licensing firm Wilan. The partnership was signed through Saskatchewan’s Industry Liaison Office and is expected to provide a significant boost to its commercialisation efforts.
Johannes Dyring, managing director of the Industry Liaison Office, said: “We believe Wilan will be a valuable partner in furthering the reach of our intellectual property in the information and computer technology sector, including promising startup companies. We look forward to a long and rewarding relationship with Wilan.”
To ensure new records can continue to be set, investment firm Industry Ventures launched two vehicles last week with a total commitment of more than $400m – the hybrid fund of funds Industry Ventures Partnership Holdings IV and the co-investment fund Industry Ventures Direct.
While Industry Ventures, which now has more than $3bn under management, is not specifically targeting spinouts, the financial involvement of university endowments means some may very well benefit from the new vehicles, which together cover seed to series A rounds.
Limited partners in the two latest funds include corporate and government pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, family offices and Industry Ventures’ managing directors.
The firm focuses on software, hardware, digital education, fintech, mobile applications, digital health, cybersecurity and internet infrastructure.
