Cambridge University innovation investor raises 75 million pounds

LONDON (Reuters) – Cambridge Innovation Capital, which commercializes technology and healthcare research from Cambridge University, has raised 75 million pounds from investors, including for the first time Woodford Investment Management.

CIC, founded in 2013, has already invested 33 million pounds in 13 technology and healthcare innovations, such as a company building robots to do keyhole surgery and a drug developer that targets RNA-modifying enzymes to treat cancer.

The new capital has come from fund manager Neil Woodford’s company, Winton Ventures and the Oman Investment Fund as well as existing shareholders including Cambridge-based chip designer ARM Holdings and IP Group, CIC said on Friday.

Chief Executive Victor Christou said CIC had made significant progress in commercializing science stemming from Cambridge University and other local institutions in the Cambridge Cluster, which he said was “one of the richest seams of scientific and technological innovation in the world”.

CIC is following in the footsteps of Imperial Innovations Group and its investor IP Group, both of which provide capital and commercial expertise to help researchers commercialise research from Britain’s world class universities.

(The story fixes spelling of manager in third paragraph)

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Susan Thomas)