Funding the Future: New Investment Fund to Help Drive Innovation

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Investors are being urged to fund the next generation of science and technology companies being created by the University of Bristol.

A whole host of exciting and innovative spinout companies have emerged from the University over the past year alone, successfully turning research into real-life applications.

To build on its growing reputation for creating high-tech companies, the University has today [15 January] launched the University of Bristol Enterprise Fund, designed to support spinouts while at the same time offering tax reliefs to individual investors who purchase new shares in those companies.

It’s only the third university in the UK to do so, after Oxford and Cambridge, and utilises the government's Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) – policies aimed at boosting economic growth in the UK by promoting new enterprise and entrepreneurship.

Investment in the fund is expected to be of particular interest to investors with links to the University, such as alumni, or to the city of Bristol.

High-tech companies created over the past year based on University of Bristol research include:

• Inductosense Ltd, a company developing wireless sensors to detect cracks and defects. It recently received a £489,000 funding boost from the Government alongside private investment.
• Zeetta Networks Ltd which breaks vendor-lock-ins using a unique Open Networking platform based on industry-standard hardware and powerful orchestration software-named NetOS®- which manages, automates and monitors the whole network while significantly reducing costs. Zeetta has also recently received investment.
• Pertinax Pharma Ltd provides a novel technology which extends the duration of antimicrobial protection in a wide range of clinical and consumer applications, including dental/oral care, animal health, orthopaedics and medical devices. Pertinax is currently finalising an initial funding round supported by government and private investors.

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