Backed by British Patient Capital and Aviva Investors, the fund plans to invest in deep tech and life sciences businesses.
British Patient Capital, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has made a £20 million cornerstone commitment to Cambridge Innovation Capital’s (CIC) £100 million Opportunity Fund, alongside Aviva Investors.
CIC was launched in 2013 and invests in deep tech and life sciences businesses that have a connection with the Cambridge ecosystem.
The fund will invest in growth-stage deep tech and life sciences companies to help address the UK’s scale-up financing gap. CIC says that these businesses are “often tackling some of the most significant societal challenges in markets of scale and are capable of delivering meaningful commercial returns and impact”.
Current healthcare companies in CIC’s portfolio include precision-guided therapy firm Bicycle; Carrick Therapeutics, which fights aggressive cancers; and CMR Surgical which is developing minimal access surgical robots.
“CIC has traditionally invested in early-stage opportunities around Cambridge and has seen many of these companies mature into highly commercial businesses developing proven technologies,” said Andrew Williamson, managing partner at Cambridge Innovation Capital.
“With this new fund we will support our portfolio companies, and scaleups from the UK ecosystem, as they reach a defining moment in their growth – and at exactly the point where the UK often loses its most exciting businesses.”
