Cambridge University invests £2.7m into graduate innovations and start-ups

In comparison with our US counterparts, the UK is perceived to not be doing enough to encourage entrepreneurialism among its students. A recent study carried out by the investment data company PitchBook, found that not a single European university was placed among the top 50 in the undergraduate alma maters of 13,000 start-up founders. However, interestingly the University of Cambridge has reportedly invested £2.7m into start-ups this year due to its desire to improve the UK's reputation for supporting graduate innovations. According to reports, Cambridge invests between £300,000-£400,000 into companies that have stemmed from graduate research. It has produced 14 companies valued at over $1bn, including the software group Autonomy and the microchip designer, Arm. The start-ups centre significantly around science and technology.

The fund accompanies the Cambridge Innovation Capital fund of £50m that was launched last year to help start-ups who are at later development stages. Last month they announced plans for three investments, one of which is a company named Jukedeck, a platform for accompanying videos with music. Anne Dobree who is head of seed funds at Cambridge's investment arm stated that, "the key issue here is not ensuring financial return per se, but ensuring these wonderful entrepreneurial academics are motivated to do it again."

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