The UK regional tech transfer alliance's Seed Investment Fund expects to close its first investments in coming months, targeting sectors including healthcare and data.
Northern Accelerator, the UK-based regional commercialisation alliance of four UK universities, yesterday launched its £1.7m ($2.2m) seed fund to be managed by venture firm Northstar Ventures.
Seed Investment Fund had originally been announced in November 2019 with the aim of increasing maturation-stage funding for research from Northern Accelerator’s stakeholders: the universities of Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria and Sunderland.
The vehicle will build its portfolio over the coming year but expects to close initial deals within the next two months, targeting sectors including healthcare, cleantech and data IT.
Northern Accelerator was formed in 2016 with funding from the UK government’s $125m Connecting Capability Fund and the EU-owned European Regional Development Fund.
It claims to have more than doubled the number of spinouts produced by its members over the past year, having to date launched 28 businesses with a total of $2.8m of pre-incorporation funding.
Northern Accelerator plans for the new seed fund to feed into a later-stage Northern Universities Fund previously reported to be targeting $125m.
Chris Day, vice-chancellor and president of Newcastle University, said: “Our region’s universities are converting more and more academic research and innovation into successful businesses.
“This is helping the economy by creating new highly-skilled jobs and drawing investment to the region. It also helps to move research from our region to make an impact around the world.”
