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Intellectual property fund raises £31 million

Article Date:  Aug 07 2007 Nick Britton

IP Group, a listed company which aims to commercialise intellectual property (IP) from universities, has completed a second closing of IP Venture Fund. The total amount raised by the fund now stands at £31 million.

The fund’s new investors include Danish pension fund Industriens Pensionsforsikring, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), backed by the UK Government, and assorted private equity interests. IP Group itself has increased its commitment to the fund to £3.1 million.

The fund is managed by a subsidiary of IP Group, and commits around 25 per cent of post-seed finance, alongside external investors, to selected companies in the group’s portfolio. It has completed nine investments to date.

IP Group’s 53 portfolio companies have been formed from its partnerships with ten universities, including those of Oxford, Bristol and Leeds. Of these, eight have listed on AIM, one on PLUS, and there have been two trade sales.

The group listed on AIM in October 2003 and moved to the main market in June last year. A subsidiary company, Modern Water, floated on AIM this June.

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