Future Planet invests in Vaccitech's $168M Series B

London, UK – 17th March 2021: Future Planet Capital has invested in a $168m Series B financing announced today by Vaccitech Ltd.  Future Planet joins other leading investors including M&G Investment Management, Tencent, Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund and fellow existing investor, Oxford Sciences Innovation. As part of the Series B financing, $43 million in convertible loan notes previously issued by Vaccitech will convert into Series B shares, resulting in total gross proceeds to Vaccitech of $168 million before expenses.

Douglas Hansen-Luke Founder & EXec Chair

Future Planet Capital

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman of Future Planet Capital, explained:

"Our decision to support Vaccitech last year, before the results of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca trials were known, has been vindicated by the vaccine’s approval for emergency use by national and international regulators. The success of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has increased our confidence in Vaccitech’s immunotherapy platform and our continuing support is signalled by our investment today.”

Bill Enright, CEO

Vaccitech

Bill Enright, CEO of Vaccitech, said:

“We expect this financing to enable us to reach key value inflection points for our lead programs. We now look forward to advancing key programs towards generating proof-of-concept data in indications with significant need of effective new treatments.”

Ed Phillips, Deal Lead

Future Planet Capital

Ed Phillips, Head of Origination at Future Planet Capital, concluded:

“This is a concrete example of our vision in action – financing the best minds to address global challenges. We look forward to working with other entrepreneurs and businesses dedicated to solving global challenges in the future.”

Vaccitech is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer; in 2020 it co-invented a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with the University of Oxford, AZD1222, which is known as the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca.

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For further information, please contact;

Future Planet Capital: Ed Philips, Head of Origination: e.phillips@futureplanetcapital.com

Sciad Communications: Richard Anderson: richard@sciad.com, Emma Pickup: emma@sciad.com

Future Planet Capital announces Partnership with Owl Ventures

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Future Planet Capital, the world’s first global platform to invest in leading universities and the “centres of innovation” that surround them, announces a limited partnership investment in Owl Ventures, a world-leading venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies. Owl Ventures will be Future Planet Capital’s strategic partner in the education sector.

Based in San Francisco and founded in 2014, Owl Ventures closed its $185m second fund in October 2017. Owl Ventures has invested in numerous fast growing transformative companies such as Accelerate Learning, a comprehensive digital PreK-12 STEM curriculum; Lingo Live, a language and communications programme; Quizlet, one of the largest educational platforms in the world; and RaiseMe, an online scholarship platform. 

Managers hard at work on sustainable development

As a number of pension funds around the world come to grips with implementing the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals into their portfolios, money managers have also been working away in the background.

Despite the work by some high-profile institutional investors, some managers said they are not yet getting questions from their clients.

"Clients are not bringing it up with us directly yet, but companies are," said Will Oulton, global head, responsible investment at First State Investments in London. "We have seen companies quite proactive in saying, 'We're going to report on how contributing to the SDGs is most relevant to our sector,'" he said. 

Patient Capital? Time for a national database to match investors with innovators

Last November, the Treasury launched the Patient Capital Review.

Its aim was to identify the barriers that innovative companies may face in gaining access to long term, supportive finance.

It is being overseen by an A list of entrepreneurs and investment experts, chaired by former Permira head Sir Damon Buffini, who are supremely well-qualified to define the issue and recommend solutions.

University start-ups aim for the Facebook formula - The Financial Times

Earlier this year, Future Planet Capital, a global innovation platform, announced the launch of a $39m British Innovation Fund, designed to focus on the “commercialisation of research emerging out of UK universities”.

“For us, innovation is a new and profitable way of doing things,” says co-founder Douglas Hansen-Luke. “We’re looking for projects with the potential to work and make a profit.”

Future Planet also acts as a platform for some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, scouting opportunities among emerging talent at universities around the globe.

How the first global university venture fund hopes to change the world

Future Planet Capital wants to connect investors to startups to help solve the biggest issues facing the planet.

The world's first global university venture fund was founded in 2015 to connect major investors, startups and academics to develop commercially viable technology that addresses challenges around climate change, health, sustainability, education, or security.

Future Planet Capital press release: Tuesday 23rd May 2017

Today, Future Planet Capital hosted an inaugural awards ceremony honouring the best start-ups across five categories at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium.

The overall winner, PragmatIC, was picked by a judging panel chaired by world-renowned architect Lord Foster, with other panel members including education reformer Lord Nat Wei, Patrick Chung, founding partner of Xfund, Nick Greenwood, Fund Manager, Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund and Jim Wilkinson, CEO, Oxford Sciences Innovation.

Future Planet Capital press release: Tuesday 16 May 2017

DMS Governance ("DMS"), the world's leading fund governance firm, is delighted to announce the addition of Future Planet Fund 1 (the "Fund") to its DMS QIAIF Platform ICAV. This is a global innovation fund, connecting the world's biggest investors to the best minds, to profitably address the world's greatest challenges.  The investment objective is to maximize long-term capital gains by providing multi-stage investment in technology and life science firms.  The Fund will invest in innovations that (i) are relatively immune to macroeconomic factors, (ii) reduce unrewarded risks, (iii) are scalable and have a proven business model.

Future Planet Capital press release: Thursday 27 April 2017

Congenica, a world leader in clinical genomics software for inherited diseases, today announced completion of its recently announced Series B funding round with additional investments from new strategically important investors BGI Genomics (BGI), a recognized global leader in genomics, Healthlink Capital (Healthlink), another well-established China-based life-science investor and Future Planet Capital, a global innovation fund.

Global University Venturing: British Innovation Fund launched with $39m

Future Planet Capital and Milltrust International Group launched the British Innovation Fund (BIF) with £30m ($39m) in commitments last month from investors including Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund.

Pensions & Investments: Berkshire Pension Fund makes seed investment in U.K. university innovation fund

Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund, Maidenhead, England, committed £15 million ($18.9m) and is the seed investor in a new strategy to direct institutional capital into the commercialisation of U.K. university innovation.

The British Innovation Fund was launched by Future Planet Capital and Milltrust International Group.

I&PE: Berkshire invests in commercialisation of UK university research

The UK’s £1.9bn (€2.3bn) Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund is to invest £15m in a new fund aiming to direct institutional capital into the commercialisation of UK university research.

The local authority pension fund committed the £15m to the British Innovation Fund (BIF), launched on 1 December by Future Planet Capital and Milltrust International Group.

The fund has received commitments of £30m so far.

Tsinghua Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI) and Future Planet Capital (FPC) Launch New Innovative Partner Model

Tsinghua News Network July 5 power July 1. Tsinghua - Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI) and Future Planet Capital (FPC) in the East Room of the Office of the word Tsinghua University signed an agreement on the cultivation and within China and worldwide accelerate innovation Investment cooperation letter of intent. Berkeley dean of Tsinghua University Professor KANG Feiyu Shenzhen and Future Planet Capital Executive Chairman Douglas · Mr. Hansen-Luke (Douglas Hansen-Luke) on behalf of the two sides signed a memorandum. Yang Bin, vice president of Tsinghua University attended the signing ceremony and delivered a speech.