Venture capital investment into high-tech firms in and around Cambridge UK totalled around £30m in the past three months since mid-December, according to a survey of published deals by Silicon Fen Business Report.
Venture capital investment into high-tech firms in and around Cambridge totalled around £30m in the past three months since mid-December, according to a survey of published deals by Silicon Fen Business Report.
In addition, one company has been purchased by a multi-national for £121m, while there was a recommended takeover of a listed Silicon Fen firm for about £85m. There were four other smaller deals by public companies that raised cash.
That means high-tech firms in the region have attracted a total of at least £270m investment in the past three months, the survey found.
As these figures reflect only those available from published sources, it is likely there has been other funding in start-ups and other private companies that remains at this stage confidential. (see www.siliconfenbusiness.com)
Cambridge-based research and data services company Library House found in its major report on the region 18 months ago that average levels of funding for Cluster start up and early stage companies was £220m a year from 2000 to 2004. These figures were perhaps skewed by the dotcom boom. It estimated that 2004 would see investment of about £200m.
The well-connected company gathered its data by survey, so is likely to be more comprehensive than published sources. No figures are yet available for 2005, but given the slow down over the Christmas season, current investment of £30m would seem to be largely on trend.
The following details the venture capital deals since mid-December.
EnvironmentIQ raised $15m with Fidelity Ventures and Cazenove Private Equity
ip.access raised £8.5m with Scottish Equity Partners, plus Intel Capital Corporation, Rothschild & Cie Gestion
ARKeX raised £5.5m with Scottish Equity Partners, Dynamics, Eurovestech and Energy Ventures
Psynova raised £2.25m with Porton Capital and Cambridge Enterprise Seed Fund
Senexis raised £1.0m with BTG plc and Wellcome Trust
CamriVox raised £0.9m with CREATE Partners, GEIF Ventures and the Cambridge Capital Group
Enecsys raised £0.35m with Carbon Trust and Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds
m-spatial raised £0.34m with Prelude Ventures
Plastic Logic raised an unspecified amount as part of $28m Series C with Oak Investment Partners
The total raised was over £27.64m
Strikingly, only two of these firms, the very new Psynova and Senexis, are Life Science companies. The others are broadly within the IT sector.
Other funding and buy-outs
In addition, in late December pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced it had bought Cluster firm KuDos Pharmaceuticals for £121m. In February, US-based SafeNet made a recommended takeover offer for AIM-listed internet security specialist nCipher for about £85m (though this deal will take some time to close, it still requires regulatory and shareholder approval).
Earlier this week, Cytomyx Holdings plc said it has sold its subsidiary Cytomyx Limited to Serologicals UK for $7m.
Plasmon said it had agreed to raise £6m from existing shareholders. Intercytex raised £15m in its February IPO on London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market. CMR Fuel Cells raised £10.3m on AIM in December.
