The UK venture capital fund Cambridge Innovation Capital, backed by the University of Cambridge, has raised €175M (£150M) to spend on life science and technology companies in the Cambridge area.
The money will support the 25 companies in the fund’s portfolio, including the biotech Bicycle Therapeutics, whose peptide-toxin molecules are in clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors. The money will also fund new enterprises in the Cambridge ecosystem. Further details about the funding were not disclosed.
This is the third fundraising round by Cambridge Innovation Capital, whose money raised so far totals €321M (£275M). The bulk of the money in this round came from the University of Cambridge.
Alongside tech and life science, biotech companies are likely to be major beneficiaries of the latest funding round. The Cambridge area is abundant in biotech companies, including antibody specialist F-star, and Horizon Discovery, which is developing cell therapies and new versions of the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9.
Other venture capital firms have also been successful in raising money for the biotech field in the last few months. The French venture capital firm Seventure Partners completed the first closing of a big €200M fund last month, focusing on companies around the world researching the microbiome. Back in December, another French firm Kurma Partners completed the first closing of a fund expected to total €150M. This money will back companies developing therapies for rare diseases.
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