More than 1 billion Euro in funding has been raised by companies with roots in Cambridge research, according to year-end results from Cambridge Enterprise, the University's commercialisation arm. The company works with University inventors and entrepreneurs to get young, high-risk companies to the stage where they can attract outside investment, through mentoring, planning advice and seed funding.
The 1 billion Euro funding figure included in the report indicates that many go on to flourish despite the uncertain basis on which they start out. The three-year survival rate for companies is also given an as 80% compared with the national average of 58%.
One of the most successful companies in the Cambridge Enterprise portfolio is BlueGnome, which was co-founded by Dr Nick Haan, a former PhD student and post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Engineering.
The company developed technology which has been shown to increase IVF success rates by 65% over current methods. In September 2012, it was acquired by US-based life sciences company Illumina for $95 million.
The University's proceeds from the sale will be returned to the 'evergreen' seed funds managed by Cambridge Enterprise, and will support the next generation of Cambridge spin-outs.
Cambridge Enterprise's total income from licensing, consultancy and equity transactions for the year ending 31 July 2012 exceeded 9.1 million Euro, with 7.5 million Euro of that amount returned to the University, departments and researchers. The team completed 84 licences, signed 201 consultancy contracts and returned more than 162,000 Euro to its seed funds.
