£250m investment vehicle established to accelerate university spinouts in Midlands

Eight research intensive universities in the Midlands have established a new investment company to accelerate the commercialisation of university spinouts and early-stage IP rich businesses in the region.

Midlands Mindforge Limited has been co-founded by Aston University, University of Birmingham, Cranfield University, Keele University, University of Leicester, Loughborough University, University of Nottingham and University of Warwick, collectively Midlands Innovation.

This “ambitious”, patient capital investment company plans to raise up to £250m from strategic corporate partners, institutional investors and qualifying individuals. It aims to transform ground-breaking science and technology into successful businesses with real-world impact.

Through the combination of additional capital and company-building skills, Midlands Mindforge will lay the foundations of a “more vibrant” ecosystem for emerging science-backed companies in areas such as Clean Technology, AI and Computational Science, Life Sciences and Health Tech.

Professor Trevor McMillan OBE, chair of Midlands Innovation Board and vice chancellor of Keele University, commented: “We have one of the largest research communities in the UK with more than 14,500 academics who have a strong track record collaborating on innovative research ideas that turn spinouts into successful businesses.

“This new company creates an ecosystem to better support our research entrepreneurs and encourage innovation. By cultivating an environment where post graduate students and researchers with commercial ideas can benefit from early access to investment, we can create opportunities for our people, place and partnership to flourish.

“Midlands Mindforge will allow our universities to scale-up their research and enterprise activity. It is a catalyst for building ground-breaking businesses that help to boost economic growth, create highly-skilled jobs and support the UK’s bid to be a global science and technology superpower.”

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, added: “A key part of my mayoral mission is to drive our regional recovery forward and help generate the high-quality jobs of the future in order to improve quality of life for local people.

“This exciting new investment vehicle will very much support that mission – planting the seeds for long-term sustainable economic growth here in the West Midlands. Together we can better nurture the enterprising talent on our doorstep and this new endeavour creates a wonderful opportunity to do just that.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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