Strategic early investment has paid off for Cambridge Enterprise in the past year with four big successes: X01 Limited, VocalIQ, Cambridge CMOS Sensors Ltd and Cambridge Epigenetix, writes Tony Raven, CEO of Cambridge Enterprise, the University of Cambridge’s commercialisation arm.
They all validate a strategy of putting small amounts of capital into excellent ideas, very early in their commercialisation.
These four successes follow in the tradition of companies like university spin-out Solexa, which has made routine human genome sequencing an everyday reality. Started with a £100,000 seed investment from Cambridge Enterprise, Solexa was acquired by San Diego-based Illumina, Inc., in 2007.
Five years later Illumina snapped up another University spin-out, BlueGnome, which was started with a £75,000 Cambridge Enterprise seed investment. Today Illumina is a $30 billion company and has approximately 80 per cent of the global market share of gene and genome sequencing technology.
As we approach our 10th anniversary in December, Cambridge Enterprise is building on these successes and working to expand follow-on support for highly promising young companies.
We are joined by our sister organisation, Cambridge Innovation Capital, a preferred investor of Cambridge University, which focuses on Cambridge companies that have received seed funding from early-stage investors and are seeking further funding to support growth.
The hallmark of our work is not just strategic investment early on but also ongoing support as companies grow. We have the advantage of being able to invest over the long-term in a way that most venture capital, limited-life funds cannot. This long-range perspective allows us to stick with companies from initial conception to ultimate success.
Thinking about the long-term also makes us ideally suited to support complex innovations, like drugs, that can take decades to get to market.
The end result of this long-range outlook and funding is not only great companies but also great societal benefits, such as improved education and bringing solar electricity to remote African villages.
Supporting innovation for the benefit of society is deep in the DNA of Cambridge University. Its first spin-out, in 1534, was Cambridge University Press.
The world’s oldest publisher, CUP is still going strong, with a turnover of £269 million in 2016. It publishes over 50,000 titles by authors from over 100 countries, bringing literally millions of ideas to the world.
At Cambridge Enterprise business is booming with a number of exciting new projects which will continue to have great impact on our economy and our society in the future.