Cambridge Enterprise records ongoing successes in latest annual report
Cambridge Enterprise’s latest annual report, published this month, reveals a successful technology transfer model delivering positive business impacts for University of Cambridge academics, researchers, staff and students under the watchful eye of chief executive Dr Diarmuid O’Brien.
This is the first annual review since Dr O’Brien took the helm of Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s knowledge exchange and commercialisation arm, in August 2021. He arrived from Trinity College Dublin, where he had been chief innovation and enterprise director, following the departure last year of Dr Tony Raven.
The university established Cambridge Enterprise in 2006.
Professor Stephen J Toope, University of Cambridge vice-chancellor, said: “Under the direction of Dr Tony Raven, Cambridge Enterprise has thrived and grown into one of the most vibrant knowledge transfer centres in the sector – generating innovation, commercialisation and employment, and contributing to society through research. I am delighted that Dr O’Brien will drive forward this extraordinary success story.”
Dr O’Brien has a PhD in physics from the University of Sheffield and a degree in materials science from Trinity College Dublin. He was also a research fellow at Princeton University.
With economic activity facing two generation-defining challenges in the global pandemic and the climate crisis, the softly-spoken Irishman is convinced Cambridge Enterprise is precisely calibrated to advance innovation “and its capacity to develop solutions that can truly improve the world”.
“Cambridge is one of the world’s leading universities,” he says during a video call, “but Cambridge is also one of the world’s leading eco-systems, and the two added together is a hugely compelling proposition.
“There are some great areas of investment, such as what is loosely called greentech, which is going to radically reshape the economy as a result of climate change.
“The other thing we’ve learned is about the future of healthcare, and there’s lot of research into that, including in personalised medicine and genomics, and this is irrespective of Covid.”
Dr O’Brien adds: “The digitalisation era, including augmented reality and AI, is going to impact every home, every industry, every educational establishment. What we do is to apply those technologies for economic gain.”
The figures involved are impressive. Cambridge Enterprise has invested £29.8m in 139 companies since inception. Its portfolio companies have cumulatively raised £2bn in follow on funding. Over the past 15 years, Cambridge Enterprise has provided £178m to the university.
The new report covers the period August 1, 2020 to July 31, 2021. In that time, it says, Cambridge Enterprise:
- Made 264 investments in 146 companies
- Made seven pre-seed investments
- Invested £5.6m in 26 spin-outs
- Saw seven seed companies formed
- Took the current portfolio value to £106.9m.
“We only invest in companies that are not just in Cambridge, but also at the university,” Dr O’Brien notes. “We don’t invest in other businesses.”
The investment strategy has certainly worked well for Centessa Pharmaceuticals, Xampla, Nyobolt, Apollo Therapeutics, Cambridge GaN Devices and Versed AI, among others.
Taking Xampla as an example, the process has been hugely productive. Founded in 2018 at the University of Cambridge by Professor Tuomas Knowles, the company’s plastic-replacing packaging range was backed by Cambridge Enterprise from the start and included involvement in a £2m seed round in 2020 and another seed round of £6.2m a year ago.
“We’ve almost done what we can do with Xampla,” Dr O’Brien remarks. “They have a fantastic CEO and team to take the company to the next level.
“The business will drive itself and that’s what we want – once a company is in that place it thrives on its own.
“As we invest we’d get an equity stake, we’re not the drivers of Series A or B rounds.”
Growth has continued despite the pandemic.
“Investment has remained high: the economic effect of Covid on this sort of sector has not been significant. New company formations have remained high, and lots of companies have kept operating in the environment. Labs are quite controlled places anyway.
“The technology sector has not suffered to the extent of, say, retail. Valuations [in technology and innovation] have been growing significantly during this period.”
Which is not to say there have not been challenges.
“I do think talent attraction and retention has become really hard in technology and innovation. Some of the challenges with Brexit and with Covid have impacted on the travel side, but on the flip side people are being recruited with a global mindset, and you don’t have to live within 10 miles of the company’s base. So it’s swings and roundabouts.”
The report’s conclusion looks to the future.
“Our new strategy will see us playing a more active role in developing the Cambridge cluster by helping it to connect to the talent and innovation within the university,” says Dr O’Brien.
