Cambridge Innovation Capital’s £1bn of investment for hub
Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) has expanded its senior team and announced a healthy financial update on the six-month period to September 30.
Since its foundation in 2014, Cambridge Innovation Capital has attracted £1billion of investment in to Cambridge companies, navigating into a dominant position at the heart of the innovation eco-system.
The new figures show that CIC’s portfolio value has increased to £251.5million as of September 30, 2019 in comparison to £186.3million at March 31, 2019.
CIC now has four investment partners, with Robert Tansley, Michael Anstey and Andrew Williamson joined by Vin Lingathoti in October.
“Cambridge Innovation Capital now has 29 portfolio companies and there are now five partners, including the CFO, Rob Sprawson,” says head of marketing Michelle Lamprecht, who also joined the team in October.
“The team has expanded from seven to 12 in the last two months,” Michelle explained. “We have Vin, Helen Slack has joined as executive assistant, Sylwia Szulc is finance manager, Nick Richards is general counsel – and we are seeking additional talent to expand the investment team further.”
Recent investment successes include:
- CMR Surgical: Closed £195m Series C funding round to commercialise surgical robotic system
- Gyroscope Therapeutics: CIC involved in raising £50.4m of Series B funding round for retinal disease gene therapies
- Cytora closed a £25m Series B financing round for AI insurance platform
- Prowler.io raised $24m to support expansion
- Storm Therapeutics closed £14m extension to its Series A financing for RNA enzyme modulation
- Audio Analytic raised $12m of Series B funding for AI audio recognition technology
- Bicycle Therapeutics successfully completed its Nasdaq IPO.
CIC also recently welcomed Riverlane, Sense Biodetection and PredictImmune to its family of portfolio companies.
Andrew Williamson, managing partner of CIC, said: “The high quality of opportunities afforded to CIC as a preferred investor for the University of Cambridge and our superior network through the Cambridge ecosystem ensures we are the gateway for accessing world-leading innovation.”
Michelle Lamprecht adds that being able to get early sight of the University’s intellectual property gives CIC a significant advantage.
Meanwhile Vin, a software engineer by training and most recently regional head of venture investments and acquisitions at Cisco Europe, said: “The Cambridge cluster, also known as Silicon Fen, has many similarities to Silicon Valley. The University of Cambridge produces some of the best engineering talent in the world, on a par with Stanford and MIT.
“CIC is uniquely positioned to leverage this Cambridge advantage. We take a collaborative approach in helping founders navigate through their journey of building world-class companies.”
