The tech transfer office and Parkwalk Advisors launched the latest $3m Enterprise Fund just ten months after Fund IV was opened to investors.
Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s tech transfer office, and investment management firm Parkwalk Advisors are set to launch a fifth Enterprise Fund sized at about £2.5m ($3.1m), Business Weekly reported yesterday.
The news comes just ten months after Cambridge University Enterprise Fund V’s predecessor, UCEF IV, also sized at £2.5m, was launched.
Established in 2012, UCEFs enable Cambridge alumni and supporters to co-invest in spinouts alongside other university-owned funds.
The fund looks to benefit from two complementary UK government tax programs: Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, which offers 50% income tax relief to individuals buying new shares in small, early-stage companies, and Enterprise Investment Scheme, which offers 30% income tax relief to investors in higher-risk small companies.
Parkwalk Advisors manages the fund, while Cambridge Enterprise serves as investment advisor, responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities for the fund.
Cambridge University funds have made over 50 investments to date, which have jointly raised over £600m of further investment and £30m of grant funding, leveraging the original university investment by over 77 times.
Parkwalk co-founder Moray Wright told Business Weekly: “[UCEF V] will provide early stage funding critical to transform university discoveries into tomorrow’s solutions in medicine, engineering, biochemistry, genetics, materials, computer science and many more.”
