Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds becomes Cambridge Enterprise Ventures

In 2020, the University committed to invest an additional £30 million into the University of Cambridge Venture Fund to enable expansion of Cambridge companies. In the last five full financial years Cambridge Enterprise Ventures has invested £22 million in to 85 companies across 150 transactions with co-investment and follow-on investment totalling £1.9 Billion. Investment is accompanied by multiple levels of added value support, provided by an experienced investor team with a network of advisors and mentors and importantly, the University of Cambridge becomes a shareholder in those businesses.

Following the money

We can invest over £2 million into companies over a number of rounds of investment, following our money through multiple stages of investment. Riverlane is a great example, one of our growing portfolio of companies in the field of quantum computing. We invested in their first round in 2019 and we have participated in each stage of their fundraising journey to date including writing a £1million cheque in their 2023 Series B fundraise round, led by Molten Ventures with Altair, Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), Amadeus Capital Partners and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF).

Ventures invests across the full spectrum of University research. Take Allan Bradley’s newest company, T-Therapeutics. Built on the foundations of 10 years of research within the University and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, T-Therapeutics is developing next-generation T cell receptor (TCR) therapeutics designed to build a portfolio of first-in-class cancer medicines and reshape the clinical landscape for cancer patients.

Co-investment collaborations

It is the strong relationships that we have nurtured with many co-investors that has made us, and our portfolio, so successful. We always syndicate with co-investors at seed stage and beyond, seeking the right added-value investors to bring the right cash for each business dependent on its sector and stage of investment. By involving external investors, we can bring in further expertise and networks, as well as invaluable funding.

Another example of the breadth of syndicate co-investors, is Cambridge Enterprise Venture Partners (CEVP) which we established in 2011, to bring likeminded co-investors under one roof. We now have over 100 co-investors from the UK, Europe and the US supporting our portfolio. CEVP works as a membership-only programme, which is open to venture capitalists and angel investors with an interest in learning about early investment opportunities originating from the University.

NetZero ventures

Cambridge Enterprise Ventures have a mission to enable and support Sustainability opportunities. We have significantly ramped up our activity in this area after the University announced its net zero vision in late 2020. Since then, we have invested in nine new Sustainability businesses including Carbon Re, Seprify, DeepForm and Materials Nexus. Since 2021, we have made 23 investments into our Sustainability portfolio, including the existing companies Nybolt, Xampla, Colorifix and Echion, committing over £6 million across the portfolio. Excitingly, last year Colorifix, made the final for the Earthshot Prize.

Cambridge Enterprise Ventures invest in high-growth businesses which can benefit society; investing for impact is part of our DNA and mission for the University. Our ambition is to enable Cambridge ideas and Cambridge founders to contribute to solving global problems such as those identified in the UN 17 sustainability goals. Ventures believes that half the technologies needed for true NetZero are still in the lab. Accelerating these opportunities is one of the most important endeavours in our historic time.

Cambridge supporting Cambridge

Cambridge Enterprise Ventures invests from the balance sheet of the University; this is Cambridge supporting Cambridge entrepreneurs and Cambridge companies. One of the biggest challenges for spin-outs and start-ups is securing the first investments into a company. Pre-seed and seed funding are critical stages for entrepreneurs to validate their ideas, de-risk their technologies and to develop their commercial plan so that they can attract the investment they will need to continue to scale. We aim to provide key investment in early-stage journeys – and beyond.

We may have changed our name, but Cambridge Enterprise Ventures remains the founder-friendly £50M University Venture Fund supporting the ideas and entrepreneurs of the University of Cambridge to have a positive impact on society and address global challenges.

Video and Image Credits:

Video: Riverlane
Image: T-Therapeutics