Global University Venturing has published the second update to its flagship longitudinal report, which is available for free to subscribers now or as a separate purchase. Here are the key findings.

Global University Venturing is proud to publish the third edition of its flagship multi-year report, looking at spinout investments and exits between the years of 2013 and 2018. The full report is now available for free as part of the May issue to our subscribers, or as a separate purchase for £35.
Key findings from the report include:

  • Global University Venturing tracked close to 3,000 deals during the six-year period
  • $11.85bn were invested across 778 spinouts globally in 2018, a record-breaking amount that is almost 2.5 times that of 2017
  • 63 exits were generated last year, almost double the figure achieved in 2016 and returning more than $14.76bn to investors
  • More than half of the capital generated through exits in 2018 came from a single deal: the acquisition of Avexis by Novartis
  • Israel broke a domestic record in the life sciences sector with the $1.6bn acquisition of Mazor Robotics by Medtronic
  • ETH transfer, winner of this year’s GUV Award for Tech Transfer Unit of the Year, produced the most spinouts of any tech transfer office in the world, with 148 spinouts in the six-year period, followed by Oxford University Innovation
  • Portfolio companies of Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of University of Cambridge, raised a combined $2.63bn between 2013 and 2018, taking the number 1 spot globally
  • Oxford Sciences Innovation, Parkwalk Advisors, Stanford-StartX Fund and Osage University Partners are among the most prolific backers of spinouts
  • 130 new funds with a university focus were launched in 2018 with a total of $6.7bn under management, a drop from the $19.9bn raised in 2017

The data analysis also features a full list of funds investing in university spinouts and is published alongside a report looking specifically into corporate venture capital units backing spinouts, featuring interviews with thought leaders such as Adam Workman at Oxford University Innovation, Anne Dobrée at Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds and Hiroyuki Ueno at Kyoto University Innovation Capital.

Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast.
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