Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation unit of Cambridge University, has hit its £1bn ($1.52bn) external fundraising target since it began making seed investments 18 years ago, bringing it into a select group of universities to crack the billion.
The news, released in CE’s annual report, puts the University ahead of other UK institutions in terms of raising external investment for spin-outs. Oxford has raised £340m since 2000, whereas Imperial College London’s Imperial Innovations has raised £408m since its IPO in 2006. SETsquared, the tech transfer partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Surrey, Exeter and Southampton has seen £750m raised by 650 supported companies over the past 5 years.
The follow-on funding announcement adds strength to Cambridge’s claim that it is the most successful technology cluster in Europe. The University has generated 12 companies valued at more than $1bn, with two valued in excess of $10bn.
Also revealed in CE’s report was Cambridge’s big win on biotech spin-out BlueGnome, which became the University’s most profitable spin-out in the University’s history when it was acquired by life sciences firm Illumina last September in a £60m deal. Once fees were paid, the University walked away with £8.5m, or 92 times its initial investment.