Eureka! Scholars' innovations targeted by £150m fund launch

Specialist venture capital firm MTI is fundraising for the world's largest unquoted investment vehicle - an fund that will seek to capture opportunities in academic innovations. 

The Orion fund is a partnership formed with three of the UK’s top six universities’ technology transfer offices (TTO), and because of this tight relationship technology experts MTI get an early stage glimpse at the spin-outs the universities hope to commercialise.

UK higher education institutions are highly regarded across the globe for their technological innovations, and often look to take ideas and creations to market.  Despite this, the area is under funded.

MTI has partnered up with the University of Manchester, University of Edinburgh and University College London for the venture, and is actively seeking to raise up to £150 million.

The Orion Fund is a late-seed vehicle which means that if investors pull out, existing backers are protected. 

Over time the venture will look to invest with other top universities, building on MTI’s relationships with the TTOs of elite institutes like Oxford and Cambridge universities.