Cambridge celebrates another record-breaking year

Cambridge University is celebrating another record year for its early-stage investments with nine seed fund investments worth £2.7m ($4.36), outdoing the previous record of £2.3m ($3.72m) in the academic year of 2012 to 2013.

On top of making these early-stage investments, the university has also seen several successful returns. Horizon Discovery concluded its initial public offering in March 2014 and is now trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Aim with a market cap of £108.76 ($175.7m) as of September 10, 2014. The university also obtained further returns from the sale of Astex Pharmaceuticals and BlueGnome. In total, Cambridge saw a return on investmens of £5.6m ($9m).  

The spin-outs who received investments by Cambridge in the past academic year are VocalIQ, which is working on voice interfaces, and Fluidic Analytics, which is developing analytics software for proteins. Jukedeck is working on a music generation software, while RoadMap is developing optical switches to make telecommunications networks more efficient. Aqdot is developing encapsulation technology. Finally, Definigen offers disease modelling based on stem cell technology, while Cambridge Epigenetix is commercialising analysis tools for DNA modification.

Cambridge University is aiming to raise for its third Enterprise Fund this month. 

Charles Cotton, member of the Cambridge Enterprise Investment Committee, said: “During the past year, returns on investments made by Cambridge Enterprise have gone from strength to strength. The IPO of Horizon Discovery, and additional returns from Astex Pharmaceuticals and BlueGnome underline the continuing success of a philosophy that goes way beyond investing money to include a range of support services for University spin-out companies at various stages in their evolution, from seed and early stage investments. New investments made during the year, in VocalIQ, Fluidic Analytics and Jukedeck capitalise on ideas from the very best entrepreneurs in the University and offer the potential for continuing success in the future.”