GUV Powerlist 2018: #17 Moray Wright

Moray Wright co-founded investment firm Parkwalk Advisors with chief investment officer Alastair Kilgour in 2009 and has been its chief executive ever since.
Wright’s career spans more than three decades – before co-founding Parkwalk, he was a director for broker Hoare Govett from 1985 to 1992, a vice-president of investment bank JPMorgan from 1992 to 1994, then managed European equity sales at asset manager Lazard Capital Markets until 2002 and finally handled European equity hedge fund sales for financial services group Mirabaud & Cie until 2008.
All that experience has helped Wright turn Parkwalk into one of the most active players in the UK innovation ecosystem. The firm currently has more than £200m ($260m) in assets under management – including multiple funds managed on behalf of the tech transfer offices of Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford universities that operate under a tax efficient model called the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS).
Wright continues to raise some £70m a year to invest in early‑stage technology companies each year.
The motivation to launch Parkwalk, Wright told GUV, stemmed from his belief that “technology emanating from universities can help solve some of the world’s challenges in key areas, and as such it is often undervalued”.
He added that he wanted to “help show that this asset class is investable for the long term, whereby long-term investors can match long-term liabilities to the benefit of society”. One of the ways universities could show their support would be to continue “to fund and expand tech transfer offices” as “the better funded TTOs have knowledge, experience and skills to help turn discoveries and innovation into investable opportunities that attract investors of all shapes and sizes”.
Parkwalk Advisors has not only become one of the most prolific supporters of spinouts, it has also been a success story in itself, culminating in its acquisition by commercialisation firm IP Group in December 2016, completed in February 2017, by which point Parkwalk already had more than 70 portfolio companies.
Alan Aubrey, chief executive of IP Group, said at the time: “Parkwalk is a great strategic fit for IP Group, being the market leader in the sector with fast-growing assets under management run by an experienced team with an excellent track record.
“The acquisition reinforces IP Group’s access to a diversified pool of capital for co-funding the earlier stages of the portfolio while providing a profitable and growing platform to develop closer links with institutional investment platforms.
“We consider EIS funds to be an increasingly important source of financing for early-stage technology companies and believe Parkwalk’s strong links to leading institutional wealth managers and university partners will be beneficial to the group.”
Wright and Parkwalk have continued to go from strength to strength since the acquisition. A recent exit was the acquisition of Quethera, a glaucoma therapy developer spun out of University of Cambridge, by pharmaceutical firm Astellas Pharma for up to £85m. Parkwalk backed the business in a 2015 round through the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund III.