Venture Capital News

Cambridge Enterprise Now Limited Company

Cambridge Enterprise, the University of Cambridge’s knowledge and technology transfer service, has become a Limited Company. The new company, wholly owned by the University, is headed by Teri Willey as chief executive.

The business plan for the new company calls for a market driven approach addressing internal (University academics) and external (parties interested in partnering to commercialize intellectual property) markets as well as an asset management approach to the growing portfolios of commercialization contracts and equity holdings.

Cambridge Enterprise Ltd’s board is composed of three University Directors (Professor Sir Richard Friend, Professor Christopher Abell and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor Ian Leslie), three external Directors (Lord Roger Freeman as Chair, Dr. Nicola Nichols and one more individual to be named), Teri Willey as Chief Executive, and Dr. Richard Jennings as a nominee from Cambridge Enterprise. The Director of Finance of the University will be an observer on the board.

Cambridge Enterprise Ltd will continue to focus on serving academics and their departments in technology commercialization and consulting to industry. The services provided by Cambridge Enterprise include intellectual property management, bespoke marketing, technology licenses and consultancy contracts negotiation. Additionally, it assists in company creation through start-up clinics, one-to-one mentoring, and access to investors, experienced management and seed capital.

Any profits generated in Cambridge Enterprise Ltd after distribution of revenue shares to academics and departments will be gift-aided to the University.

In 05/06 Cambridge Enterprise:

• Generated knowledge and technology transfer income of £6.2 million (US$12.2 million) and returned in excess of £5.2 million (US$10.2 million) to academics and university departments.
• Closed 61 commercialization deals (most of which were with SMEs).
• Assessed 152 new invention disclosures and filed 58 new patent applications.
• In partnership with entrepreneurial researchers, launched four new spinouts: Cambridge Innovision, E-stack, OrthoMimetics and Psynova. Cambridge Enterprise also provided seed funding for Enecsys, Enval, Sentinel Oncology and Psynova. Many more start-ups received advice and support.
• Concluded in excess of 80 new consultancy agreements from a variety of disciplines, reflecting demand for academics’ technical advice.

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Strategic Venture Association Joins Collective IQ as Special General Partner

Collective IQ, founded by William "Billy G" Glynn, ranked one of the world's top innovators by InformationWeek magazine, announced tthis week to the company's partnership with the Strategic Venture Association (SVA). The Strategic Venture Association has become a Special General Partner in the CIQ platform and Jon Nieman, Vice Chairman of CIQ who is responsible for its alternative investment activities, has joined the advisory board of SVA.

Naveed Khan, Executive Director of SVA and former Managing Director of Siemens Ventures will serve as the key driver in the relationship. SVA is a trade association currently representing 103 global corporate venture programs. SVA serves the corporate venture community much the same way the National Venture Capital Association serves venture capitalists.

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Motorola Invests in DARTdevices

Representatives of Motorola, Inc. and DARTdevices Corporation, a developer of a disruptive software technology for consumer devices, announced Tuesday that Motorola Ventures, the strategic venture arm of Motorola, has made a Series A investment in the company. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Founded in 2003, DARTdevices has developed software that lets multiple consumer devices directly access the combined content and applications of any DART-enabled device such as mobile phones and PCs. DART software seamlessly addresses the software distribution, versioning, security, hardware compatibility and synchronization issues typically associated with device-to-device interaction.

As the second most active globally focused corporate venture capital arm, Motorola Ventures invests in a diversified portfolio of technology firms, and is intensely focused on helping to accelerate Motorola's seamless mobility vision.

DARTdevices will demonstrate its new technology publicly for the first time at the DEMO 2007 conference, Jan. 30 - Feb. 2, 2007, Palm Desert, Calif.

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After Successful Exit, Entrepreneur Turns Once Again to Central Florida Resources to Grow Next Startup

Five years ago Sanjay Patel was one of the first technology entrepreneurs to graduate from the University of Central Florida Technology Incubator with a promising enterprise, a global strategy and strong venture capital funding.  After selling his company for a seven-figure sum, Patel is wiser, wealthier and eager to grow another startup enterprise into a multi-million dollar operation.

Patel’s new company — Datanautix — is even more promising offering a sound alternative to offshore call center strategies that export thousands of American jobs overseas and tax the patience of American consumers.

Patel’s iBackOffice opened in 2000 to provide high-end tech support for the wireless data industry.   The company launched a satellite call center in Bangalore, India, that grew to more than 300 workers in just two years, ranking Patel among the leading pioneers of the $300 billion global industry.

When Patel sold iBackOffice, he formed a management consulting firm that helps American companies cope with the globalization of back office and front office operations.

Soon Patel realized he was on the verge of building a cheaper, better mousetrap: unique approaches to call center operations that document cost efficiencies of up to 30 percent and supercharge customer satisfaction scores.

Unique analytical approaches and innovative data collection methodologies give Datanautix a big competitive edge, Patel said.

 “Sending call center work offshore is often a band-aid solution for companies that are looking to reduce operational costs,” Patel said.   “Our unique, proven approach allows these same companies to re-engineer their customer-facing processes and derive the same benefit. Our proprietary approach results in measurable improvements in customer satisfaction,” he said.

Patel turned once again to Central Florida’s resources that had helped him before including top notch UCF research partners, the Florida High Tech Corridor, and UCF’s Technology Incubator.  

“It’s good to see Sanjay back with another company,” said Tom O’Neal, Associate Vice President for Research and Commercialization and Director of the Incubator.  “He already is working on a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) project with a UCF researcher and is taking advantage of the Florida High Tech Corridor’s matching grants program.  This combined with the business development resources at the incubator provide true value for entrepreneurs as they build strong tech based companies in the region,” said O’Neal.