Key Cambridge, UK VC launches $126M fund to stem later stage flight

It is often said that Great Britain and Europe are missing the enormous growth financing for start-ups of the later phase that the United States have for themselves, and this is correct. According to the European investment fund, there is at least at least at least Seven times more Large sizes VC funds in the USA as in Europe. Therefore, the appearance of a new growth fund in Great Britain is considerable.

Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), which invests exclusively in the Cambridge ecosystem in and around the famous university, has launched a new “Opportunity Fund” of 100 million GBP (126 million US dollars), essentially a growth fund. CIC has invested 757 million US dollars in over 40 companies and a privileged relationship with the University of Cambridge.

The fund is anchored by Aviva investors and British patient capital and will invest in Deep-Tech and Biosci Scientes in the growth stage.

Two investments have already been made. Pragmatic semiconductor is a large chip designer and manufacturer who has collected 389.3 million US dollars to date Rivanlaneis a quantum computing error correction company that has collected $ 120.7 million.

The new CIC fund will invest up to 20 million GBP ($ 25.2 million) per investment in the later financing rounds of Deep Tech- and Biosci Scientific companies. Of course, the hope is to tackle the long -term problem with the long -term funding gap in Great Britain for startups from later level, which means that these companies lead to other countries, usually the USA, to drain these companies.

In part, it is this topic that the British government last month, its “AI campaign plan” a series of measures to grow the economy with AI and a promise to build the “Silicon Valley” in Europe by super load The existing Tech ecosystems around the famous universities in Oxford and Cambridge. In addition, the “golden triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge, the five leading British universities, will also receive larger connections in addition to a package of 14 billion GBP.

Andrew Williamson, managing director at CIC, told Techcrunch about a call that CIC traditionally invested in companies in the early stage in Cambridge, but there were many who came to proven technologies.

“In the past we have done it when our companies reach the series -c stage … We didn’t have the capital in our core funds to make them [later stage] Investments, ”he said.

“So we offered you some of our LPs as co-investment. But not many institutions, especially financial institutions, are really set up to make direct investments in companies. The creation of this fund was therefore one in which they could participate. “

He added that one of the most important guidelines of the British government to the British commercial bank is to solve the gap in the scaling capital of the later level growth funds. In the case of Aviva you are one of the signatories of the Villa House Compact. So it is about admitting some of your pension fund capital in productive growth assets. “

Outputs from the CIC portfolio include the sale of the Gyroscope therapeutics of the gene therapy company to Novartis for 1.5 billion US developers Audio Analytic.

Cambridge is best known to produce several important companies, including Arm Holdings, Abcam, Darkrace and Bicycle Therapeutics.