The firm’s portfolio fell to a $61.8m net loss during 2018 amid difficult market conditions for listed small-cap businesses and the consolidation of its former peer Touchstone Innovations.

UK-based commercialisation firm IP Group today posted its annual results for 2018, slumping to a £48.4m ($61.8m) portfolio net loss from £94.2m ($127.2m) in profit the previous year. Alan Aubrey, chief executive of IP Group, conceded the market had been “challenging” for listed small-cap portfolio businesses but insisted many “key” IP Group companies made substantial progress commercially. IP Group completed its consolidation of former commercialisation peer Touchstone Innovations during 2018, in an acquisition expected to result in annual synergies of $10.2m by the end of 2020. The firm estimates it will save approximately $3.8m each year having recently ended Touchstone’s tech transfer arrangement with Imperial College London. IP Group’s overall portfolio investments rose to $128.8m from $94.4m the previous year.  There was also a 51.5% year-on-year increase in investment from its fund management arm, Parkwalk Advisors, which supplied $25.9m in 2018. Total funding raised by IP Group-backed companies in 2018 climbed to $886.8m from $425.3m the previous year. Highlights included a $140m funding round for sequencing technology spinout Oxford Nanopore Technologies in March backed by Australian superannuation fund Hostplus and financial services firm China Construction Bank. Oncology-focused biotech company Artios Pharma collected $84m in an oversubscribed series B round featuring IP Group in August 2018, before University of Bristol-founded haptics technology developer Ultrahaptics closed a $44.8m deal with investors including IP Group and its Venture Fund II in December. Elsewhere, publicly listed Imperial College London energy cell production spinout Ceres Power secured $94.4m from investors including two new strategic partners, industrial product maker Robert Bosch and diesel engine manufacturer Weichai Power.

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