Braveheart earlier this month received Scottish executive backing for the “proof of concept” programme, which aims to fast-track private funding to bring university research projects from the laboratory to the marketplace.
The firm is now talking to other universities, including Dundee, St Andrews and Aberdeen, and to various universities in England, including the University of Surrey, for a £30m private risk capital fund to develop university research projects commercially while retaining intellectual property ownership. Braveheart’s investments are returning more than 30%, one of the highest returns in the sector.
Geoffrey Thomson, Brave-heart chief executive, said his fund had about 90 business “angels” prepared to invest £5,000-£100,000 each in portfolios of university projects. Although it was risk capital, the portfolio approach reduced exposure to any single project. “We’re looking at it as a fund manager would,” he said. “We have doubled our money every 29 months since 1997.”
Expansion into England would bring the fund up to about £30m in two to three years. Projects being considered include life sciences, fuel cell development and plasma screens. Thomson said he expected management teams to take at least half the equity risk.