Articles in this publication
All roads lead to Beijing
“Xi Jinping gambles on economic tumult to cement his legacy”, “The Undoing of China’s Economic Miracle” and “China’s Unstable Political Economy” are just some of the headlines that have graced the Financial Times, The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal in recent months. Some of this anxiety among economists relates to property developer China Evergrande, […]
From entrepreneurs to studios to agents
More than a decade ago, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz looked at talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for inspiration in how to support entrepreneurs and run their then-new firm. Michael Ovitz, CAA’s co-founder, served on Andreessen and Horowitz’s prior startup, Opsware’s, board from 2000 until Hewlett-Packard’s $1.6bn acquisition in 2007 and shared […]
GUV Awards 2021: Deal of the Year
The $225m series D round for University of Dundee’s drug discovery spinout Exscientia is the Global University Venturing Deal of the Year Award winner for 2021. The round, which was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, an investment vehicle for telecoms conglomerate SoftBank, also featured pharmaceutical firms Novo and Bristol Myers Squibb as well as […]
GUV Awards 2021: Exit of the Year
Sana Biotechnology’s spectacular initial public offering has earned it the Global University Venturing Exit of the Year Award for 2021. The firm, a specialist in developing medicines based on stem cells, uses technology licensed from Harvard University and in its IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in February raised almost $588m – nearly four […]
GUV Awards 2021: Investment Unit of the Year
Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC)’s appetite for dealmaking has remained undimmed during the pandemic, with a slew of new investments in recent months highlighting the patient capital fund’s ongoing commitment to supporting world-leading life-sciences and deeptech businesses. With more than £300m ($410m) under management, CIC’s relationship with University of Cambridge and its technology transfer office, Cambridge […]
GUV Awards 2021: Technology of the Year
DNA analysis that can help obese people and diabetes sufferers choose the right food to eat is the innovation that underpins the success of Imperial College London spinout DnaNudge, winner of the Global University Venturing Technology of the Year Award in 2021. The firm’s DNA testing products can also aid those suffering from hypertension and […]
GUV Awards 2021: CVC Investment in a Spinout of the Year
Right now, quantum computing is perhaps the single most exciting development in the world of technology – so it is appropriate that the Global University Venturing 2021 Award for CVC Investment in a Spinout should go to M12 for its involvement in the $450m series D round for PsiQuantum, a US-based developer of quantum computing […]
GUV Awards 2021: Tech Transfer Office of the Year
That the innovation ecosystem in Scotland manages to punch well above its weight – not just in the UK but in Europe as a whole – is in no small part thanks to Edinburgh Innovations. The unit is a wholly-owned subsidiary of University of Edinburgh, and was founded more than 50 years ago. Its track […]
GUV Awards 2021: Personality of the Year
Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), the investment company established by University of Oxford, was already an impressive beast long before Alexis Dormandy took over its leadership. Having raised £613m ($845m) from a diverse set of global investors, OSE has helped build more than 100 spinouts, playing a substantial role in the foundation of more than 60 […]
GUV Awards 2021: Lifetime Achievement Award
After two decades spent building up University College London’s technology transfer subsidiary into a powerhouse on the international stage, Anne Lane is a wholly deserving recipient of the Global University Venturing Lifetime Achievement Award for 2021. As CEO of UCL Business (UCLB), Lane has to date helped to raise more than £1.5bn ($2bn) for spinouts […]
Q3 2021: Keeping the party going
Perhaps the only way for university venturing to go after a truly astounding first half the year was always in the same direction. And with 273 investments worth a combined $10.6bn, the months of July, August and September did not disappoint. The total for the year now stands at 848 deals, not too far off […]
Oxford orchestrates successful portfolio
When Global University Venturing published its ground-breaking analysis of more than 60 years of spinouts at University of Oxford in April 2020, all the data we had collected was from a pre-pandemic world. By that point, the institution’s portfolio had collected more than £2.2bn and another $245m in equity financing overall. Guest after guest on […]
Naturebeads tackles microplastics crisis
An innovation that could drastically reduce the volume of harmful plastic microbeads in products ranging from cosmetics to paint is helping a UK cleantech developer win plaudits and attract investment. Naturbeads, a spinout from University of Bath, has developed a process to manufacture biodegradable microparticles from cellulose. The firm, set up in 2019, is based […]
Orca lights up quantum technology
What sets Orca Computing apart from other quantum technology developers is its use of fibre optics and photonics to overcome one of the key challenges facing the sector – the disruption that can be caused by outside forces such as magnetic fields and thermal energy on qubits, the building blocks of quantum computing. “What you […]
Verv captures energy cost opportunities
Verv, the smart energy company founded by Peter Davies at University of Bath six years ago, is on the verge of international success. The spinout has developed machine learning technology to produce devices that can monitor domestic energy consumption while also detecting and predicting faults on appliances such as air conditioning units. But its early […]
On the importance of diversity and entrepreneurship
Over the past 50 years, women have transformed their lives and goals through higher education and employment, in some cases accessing those sought-after seats in the board room. However, a large gender gap still exists which is particularly prevalent amongst entrepreneurs. For example, in the UK, for every three female entrepreneurs, there are five male […]
New challenges and bigger opportunities
The themes of this year’s GCV Symposium – sustainability and impact investing – capture the “let’s build back better” attitude that I have seen emerging across our ecosystem as we start to re-imagine what our future could and should be like. GCV Symposium’s choice of themes has an uncanny knack for setting the agenda for […]
The $1bn commercialisation portfolio
Recently Knowledge Commercialisation Australia (KCA) released its annual Survey of Commercial Outcomes from Public Research (SCOPR). With a reported doubling of commercialisation revenue in the two years from 2018 to 2020, it is the first time the report has delved into the commercialisation activities of the survey participants. And it has revealed some interesting and […]
