Turning university ideas into billion-dollar companies is the focus of the OUI Investments and New Ventures team.
There has been much debate in the University (and beyond!) on the subject of unicorns and how to create them.
While there are many schools of thought, the main problem with unicorns is – much like their mythical inspiration – they are notoriously hard to spot.
Rather than wasting time and energy running around trying to catch unicorns, our team at OUI Investments and New Ventures is focused on building an ecosystem that supports all our spinout companies, from the small lean enterprises through to the billion dollar unicorn.
Our team of five professionals brings OUI’s funding together with the former Spinout Equity Management, giving us greater operational oversight of how OUI manages the University’s equity stakes and the financial support we can offer our innovation community. Combined with our investment funds, we have greater investment firepower, allowing us to get more deals done, build even stronger links with the investment community, and deliver greater levels of corporate engagement.
The value of the spinout equity portfolio has more than doubled in recent years, rising from £68.2m in 2015 to £155.1m today. What all this means is that our spinouts have never been more valuable, nor have they been better resourced.
