Steady is the assessment that comes to mind, rather than remarkable, when probing the year-on-year direction of corporate venture capital investment in university spinouts.

With hundreds of university venture funds, internal commercialisation vehicles and third-party firms the reality in today’s innovation ecosystem, selecting the nominees and the winner for Investment Unit of the Year is increasingly challenging.

One only has to look at the investors in the €117m ($135m) final close for Imec.xpand, the venture fund of nano-electronics research institute Imec, to see why it is worthy of GUV’s Fundraising of the Year award.

University venturing fund Oxford Sciences Innovation has added an additional $290m to its assets as spinout Oxford Nanopore attracts another $126m in funding.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has unveiled an incubator that will provide funding, space and expertise to boost commercialisation activities on and off-campus.

Editor-in-chief James Mawson speculates on University Ventures second fund, raised last week and securing $31m more than its first.