MTI launches fund for university spin-outs

The fund is a partnership between MTI and three Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) of selected technology research institutions in the UK.

MTI's last fund, UMIP Premier Fund, raised £32m and was dedicated to spin-outs from the Universities of Manchester, Oxford and Southampton.

The fund is expected to hold first close in Q3 of 2012.

Investments
Investments from the Orion Fund will primarily target spin-outs from the Univserity of Manchester (UMI3), University of Edinburgh (ERI) and University College London (UCL Business PLC). 

The fund will also consider investments in partnership with the TTOs of Oxford and Cambridge.

The investment strategy will be MTI's Proof of Principle investment programme (PoP) that provides pre-seed funding.

People
Upon raising the fund, Sir Richard Heygate, Natasha Oppenheim, Dominic Perks and Paul Ratcliff will be promoted to partner. They are all members of the fundraising team at present.

David Ward, managing partner at MTI, was also involved in setting up the fund.

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