Swansea University is set to support research commercialisation and spinouts with individual investments of up to $77,500.
Swansea University has launched its Innovation Fund, aimed at supporting the institution’s research pipeline and investing in spinouts, WalesOnline reported on Friday.
The fund’s total size has not been revealed, but will offer two kinds of financial support: firstly, research projects can apply for up to £5,000 ($7,750), which they may use to commission market and technical reports.
Secondly, the fund will invest up to £50,000 in spinouts alongside outside investors.
The fund follows a £450,000 pilot programme, dubbed InvestorG8 and funded by Wales’ government. InvestorG8 lasted for ten months, and support a total of nine research projects, of which eight were spun out.
The fund was set up by Gerry Ronan, head of commercial services at Swansea University, and will be managed by Mark Bowman, director of consultancy firm Arche Innovations who was previously also involved with InvestorG8.
Ronan said: “InvestorG8 has delivered a step change in spinout activity at Swansea University. The decision to launch an Innovation Fund is part of a broader strategy to support spinout formation and to ensure that such companies are properly financed.
“We fully expect to leverage significant additional investment from third party venture capital funds and business angel networks.”
