University Spinout Ventures targets $40m

A new UK-based, seed-stage venture fund is aiming to raise £30m ($4om) to invest mainly in businesses based on university research.
The vehicle, dubbed the British University Spinout Investment Fund, has been launched by a venture firm called University Spinout Ventures and is expected to commence operations in 2020.
British University Spinout Investment Fund’s limited partners have not been identified. University Spinout Ventures also hopes to provide universities with consulting services, which it will also offer to early-stage technology investors and science-driven startups.
The firm’s founder is Brijesh Roy, who was credited with the creation of gene therapy spinout Nightstar Therapeutics during his time at Oxford University Innovation (OUI) – University of Oxford’s tech transfer office –  as a tech transfer manager from 2009 until 2015.
Nightstar Therapeutics went on to a $75m initial public offering in 2017 – crowned GUV Exit of the Year for 2018 – before being acquired by biotechnology firm Biogen in an $800m deal expected to close towards the middle of this year.
After leaving OUI in June 2015, Roy joined Mercia Technologies as an investment manager, taking responsibility for seed and follow-on investments of up to $1.3m in spinouts concentrated in the life, physical, engineering and digital sciences.
He called time on the Mercia Technologies position in February 2019, shortly before unveiling his latest venture.