The universities of Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside are the latest group of academic institutions in the UK to launch a fund to invest in their spinouts.
Five universities in the UK’s northeast have committed £12.5m ($16m) to a £22.5m fund that will invest in spinouts from the partner universities.
The fund, which has yet to be named, is designed to “turbo-charge” spinout activity by the five partner universities, according to an information memorandum.
The participants are Durham University, Newcastle University, Northumbria University, the University of Sunderland and Teesside University.
The group has become the latest partnership of universities in the UK to invest in regional investment funds. This month, SETSquared, an association of six universities in the UK’s southeast, launched a £300m investment company.
They join Northern Gritstone, a £300m investment partnership of the universities of Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, and Midlands Mindforge, a group of eight universities in the Midlands, which is raising money for a fund.
Several London-based universities are also in talks to form a joint fund — reportedly called London Atrium — to invest in their spinouts.
The northeast university fund is notably smaller than the other regional spinout funds. It will invest over five years in at least 30 companies, according to the information memorandum.
The northeast of England is a particularly deprived area of the UK for investment. An independent review of the supply and demand for finance identified a gap of up to £19m a year available to regional businesses.
The fund’s administrators are currently seeking a fund manager, who will work with the partner universities to identify and commercialise spinouts.
