London universities are among the most prolific in the UK for producing spinouts but unlike Oxford and Cambridge, have lacked a single, dedicated organisation to promote spinout investment.
London universities are increasing efforts to find investment for their spinout companies, through a new partnership with venture capital fund AlbionVC, an investor in early-stage healthcare and deep tech companies.
AlbionVC already has a partnership with University College London but now plans to extend this to investing in spinouts across all London universities in the third quarter of this year. Ed Lascelles, partner at AlbionVC, says its success with UCL had inspired the team to expand the partnership to more institutions.
“Our experience with UCL has been incredible. There are some extraordinary companies that have come out of the university. We are just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the quality of research that is available to be commercialised into some great companies,” says Lascelles.
“London universities combined have the same research output as the Bay Area. London as a whole, if you include all the researchers, is an incredible powerhouse,” he says.
AlbionVC currently runs the UCL Technology Fund, the investment arm of the University College London, in partnership with UCL’s technology transfer office, UCL Business.
At UCL Technology Fund, Albion VC has managed two funds and seen several exits including four initial public offers on Nasdaq. In addition to providing first rounds of financing, the VC works directly with academics and entrepreneurs to build ventures.
London universities are among the most prolific in the UK for producing spinouts. While the universities of Oxford and Cambridge spin out the most companies, Imperial College London ranks third with 132 spinouts between 2011 and 2025. University College London has produced 99 spinouts over the same period, while the Royal College of Art has spun out 72. The universities of Queen Mary and King’s College London have spun out 65 companies combined, according to newly released data from Beauhurst and the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub.
Several UK universities have recently formed spinout fund partnerships as the government pushes for increased commercialisation of university research. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge have their own affiliated investment companies, Oxford Science Enterprises and Cambridge Innovation Capital. Others have jointly co-partnered to form investment companies, such as Northern Gritstone, which invests in spinouts from northern England universities of Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester.
Lascelles says the firm is particularly interested in talking to CVCs about spinout investment opportunities. “As a venture investor, we are always happy to talk to investors and we are particularly interested to talk to corporate investors, because we can see real symbiosis where corporate investors get access and insight into some of the emerging technologies and benefit from engaging early with potential customers and partners,” says Lascelles.
