Aviva has expanded into university spinout investing following an earlier investment in the University of Cambridge's affiliated fund, Cambridge Innovation Capital.
UK financial services firm Aviva has invested £15m ($19.4m) alongside the UK’s Fulcrum Asset Management in Northern Gritstone, a company that invests in spinouts from the northern England universities of Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds.
Northern Gritstone has also received £35m in new funding commitments from Northern LGPS, the collective asset pool for Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire pension funds. Its total permanent capital comes to £362m.
Aviva, which provides pension fund management among several other financial services, also recently invested in Cambridge Innovation Capital, a university spinout fund affiliated with the University of Cambridge in the UK.
Aviva has expanded into university spinout investing following the UK’s pension reform legislation, which allows the country’s defined pension providers to allocate 5% of assets to unlisted equities such as venture capital and growth equity.
Since its launch in 2022, Northern Gritstone has made 32 investments in early-stage companies in the north of England.
