On Monday, we released “The Wei Forward “ Report, a practitioner’s guide to impact investing in a post-pandemic world. The report, written by Lord Wei of Shoreditch, the social entrepreneur and Conservative peer, and commissioned by Future Planet Capital, the international impact investment group, sets out how venture capital can provide the solution to harnessing university-originated innovation, enabling a next generation of entrepreneurs to supercharge efforts to solve the biggest problems like climate change, health, educations, and security issues, whilst still delivering profits for investors.
Future Planet acquires one of the UK’s oldest VC firms
Future Planet Capital (FPC) has announced its acquisition of one of Britain’s most respected venture capital firms, Midven Ltd. The deal will enable Future Planet to grow its extensive global innovation network, which includes Berkeley, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT and Oxford, by combining them with Midven’s access to top-ranked UK Government funded scientific research. FPC is already a leader in this sector and was one of the first to bring sovereign wealth fund investors to British university venture.
Future Planet Capital is unique in its impact led approach, built to invest in growth companies from the world's top universities. The firm has built a track record of catalysing growth to scale university spin-outs into nascent global players, demonstrated in its backing of 23andMe, Congenica and recently Vaccitech. Through its focus on companies emerging from the founders or science of the world’s leading universities, FPC has access to opportunities with long-term value and lasting impact.
Midven, which is supported by blue chip investors including the British Business Bank and European Investment Bank, manages the highly successful UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and the £35m MEIF West Midlands Growth Fund, part of the British Business Bank's £250m Midlands Engine Investment Fund.
Douglas Hansen-Luke, FPC Executive Chairman, said: "Midven’s exceptional 30-year track record, its strong capital base and the UKI2S Fund’s close relationship with some of Britain’s top research establishments will offer our investors, stakeholders and our portfolio companies greater opportunities. By incorporating Midven, Future Planet Capital will become an important player in the UK’s impact and university venture industry, with more reach, more investors and more capital to invest in companies working to tackle global challenges. The UK is the world’s 3rd most successful economy for innovation output1 and the ideal location to build a global impact fund."
Andrew Muir, Director, Midven, and Investment Director & Fund Principle, UKI2S, added: "FPC’s connections to leading universities around the world will enable us to connect and support the UK’s top scientific innovators to benchmark and nurture the best of British talent."
Tony Stott, CEO, Midven, commented: "Midven has a highly successful track record of investing government money through both UKI2S and its Midlands Engine fund. Future Planet’s relationships with global institutional investors should greatly assist all of Midven’s ambitious portfolio companies.
Notes to Editors
About Future Planet Capital
Future Planet Capital Limited is an international venture capital and impact investor, connecting the world's largest investors to the best minds in order to address global challenges. The firm is focused on providing growth capital to leading entrepreneurs and businesses from the world’s top universities and has deployed over $100M on behalf of institutional investors to date. Future Planet Capital’s goal is to profitably solve the world's greatest challenges in climate change, education, health, sustainable growth & security. This deal further strengthens our ability to deliver in these vital areas.
Midven
Midven was originally established as a venture capital firm by six Midlands based entrepreneurs over 30 years ago. The company then went through a management buy-out in 2007 when the current investment team acquired the business from the original founders. Since Midven became wholly owned by its management team, it has grown quickly and solidly, more than doubling the team size and increasing funds under management by over four-fold. Operating from offices in Birmingham, London and Oxfordshire, Midven invests on both a regional and national basis through a growing portfolio of funds.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210407005904/en/
Contacts
Future Planet Capital
Jessica Hill, Associate / Abigail Wye, Network Director
[e] j.hill@futureplanetcapital.com
[e] a.wye@futureplanetcapital.com
Sciad Communications
Richard Anderson / Emma Pickup
[e] richard@sciad.com
[e] emma@sciad.com
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/future-planet-capital-acquires-midven-063000653.html
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.
-ends-
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
Vaccitech raises $168M Series B to progress three Phase 2 trials
Oxford, UK – Vaccitech Ltd (“Vaccitech”), 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, today announces that it has raised $168 million in a Series B financing. This includes $43 million in convertible loan notes previously issued by Vaccitech that converted into Series B shares.
The Series B financing round was led by M&G Investment Management (part of M&G plc), with further participation from new investors including Tencent, Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund, and Future Planet Capital among others. The Series B financing round was also supported by existing investors, including Oxford Sciences Innovation.
“We expect this financing to enable us to reach key value inflection points for our lead programs,” said Bill Enright, Chief Executive Officer of Vaccitech. “We now look forward to advancing key programs towards generating proof-of-concept data in indications with significant need of effective new treatments.”
The proceeds from the financing will support the continued development of three infectious disease and immuno-oncology programs. The programs include:
A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-300 in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The first patient in the trial was dosed in February 2021.
A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-200 in patients with persistent, high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.
A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-850 in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in patients with prostate cancer.
Vaccitech’s proprietary prime-boost platform combines modified simian adenoviral vectors (known as ChAdOx1 or ChAdOx2) to prime a targeted immune response with the Modified Vaccinia Ankara virus (MVA) to boost the targeted immune response against cells infected with a virus or tumor cells. Vaccitech’s heterologous prime-boost approach has been demonstrated to drive powerful immune responses, including the leading CD8+ T cell stimulation profile in humans, to date. In addition to the HBV, HPV and prostate cancer programs, Vaccitech’s pipeline includes product candidates targeting infectious disease (including MERS coronavirus and Herpes Zoster) and cancer (including non-small cell lung cancer).
“Vaccitech is aiming to address serious global public health challenges in both infectious disease and cancer with their T cell inducing immunotherapy platform,” said Jack Daniels, Chief Investment Officer of M&G plc. “We believe their innovative approach, based on foundational research performed at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, could provide a solution for many serious diseases.”
Media contacts:
Katja Stout, Scius Communications (EU)
Direct: +44 (0) 7789435990
Email: katja@sciuscommunications.com
Ryo Imai / Robert Flamm, Ph.D. (US), Burns McClellan, Inc.
212-213-0006 ext. 315 / 364
Email: Rimai@burnsmc.com / rflamm@burnsmc.com
Henry Hodge, Vaccitech
Direct: +44 (0) 7533 421 442
Email: henry.hodge@vaccitech.co.uk
Future Planet backs Oxford Vaccine Company
“A biotechnology company whose research and intellectual property has helped to create the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has raised new investment from venture capitalists.
Oxford-based Vaccitech has agreed the funds – understood to be as much as £10million – from Future Planet Capital which also invests in health, climate change and education projects.
It is believed the capital will be used to help the roll-out of the Oxford vaccine, which could get UK approval as soon this week.”
Daily Mail, 26th December 2020
Future Planet was delighted to have welcomed Vaccitech to its Portfolio and today’s news demonstrates that cutting-edge technology from the world’s top universities has the potential to solve global social, economic and environmental challenges.
Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman - FPC
"FPC was founded with the vision of financing the brightest minds to profitably address global challenges. Today, as the Oxford vaccine’s results are published and an end to the coronavirus crisis is in sight, Future Planet is one step closer to realising its vision. We’re delighted to welcome Vaccitech to the Future Planet family.”
Bill Enright, CEO - Vaccitech
“Future Planet and their practical and ethical policy of impact investing were a welcome investor at an important time for our company. Funding from Future Plant will help us to continue to progress our product candidates through clinical development.”
Ed Phillips, Head of Origination and Deal Lead - FPC
"Priced at the cost of a cup of coffee, and stored in a fridge, Vaccitech’s ChAdOx may represent the superhero of vaccine technologies we’ve all been waiting for. We are confident in the long-term prospects of the company’s platform. Not just for COVID, but also for prophylactic and therapeutic approaches for many other indications in oncology, infectious disease and chronic illness”
-
Future Planet Capital Limited is a global venture capital and impact investor, connecting the world's largest investors to the best minds in order to address global challenges. The firm is focussed on providing growth capital to leading entrepreneurs and businesses from the world’s top universities and has deployed over $100M on behalf of institutional investors to date. Future Planet's deal team was led by Ed Phillips, supported by Lyle Pentith.
Vaccitech, Future Planet backed Oxford Spinout, Offers Global Path to End of COVID-19
Future Planet Backed Oxford Spinout Offers Global Path to End COVID
This week, interim Phase III data was released for the Oxford / AstraZeneca Vaccine, co-invented by our portfolio company Vaccitech. From late December, assuming the full dataset has been analysed and confirmed to meet formal regulatory requirements, AstraZeneca has announced that they believe they will be in a position to provide a vaccine for a quarter of the world's population. The vaccine will not just benefit the UK, EU and US who have ordered millions of doses, but the developing world, too. The Serum Institute of India has already begun producing 1 billion doses for the global south.
The results & data have now been independently verified in one of the world's leading medical journals, The Lancet. This is the first set of COVID-19 vaccine data to undergo scientific peer-review & demonstrates the efficacy & safety of the vaccine.
Future Planet made a direct investment into Vaccitech earlier this year. The clinical-stage biotech company owns rights to the viral vector technology, ChAdOx, which is used in the Oxford / AstraZeneca Vaccine. The company has a diverse pipeline in development across oncology, infectious disease and chronic illnesses affecting millions of people a year.
Future Planet was delighted to have welcomed Vaccitech to its Portfolio and today’s news demonstrates that cutting-edge technology from the world’s top universities has the potential to solve global social, economic and environmental challenges.
Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman - FPC
"FPC was founded with the vision of financing the brightest minds to profitably address global challenges. Today, as the Oxford vaccine’s results are published and an end to the coronavirus crisis is in sight, Future Planet is one step closer to realising its vision. We’re delighted to welcome Vaccitech to the Future Planet family.”
Bill Enright, CEO - Vaccitech
“Future Planet and their practical and ethical policy of impact investing were a welcome investor at an important time for our company. Funding from Future Plant will help us to continue to progress our product candidates through clinical development.”
Ed Phillips, Head of Origination and Deal Lead - FPC
"Priced at the cost of a cup of coffee, and stored in a fridge, Vaccitech’s ChAdOx may represent the superhero of vaccine technologies we’ve all been waiting for. We are confident in the long-term prospects of the company’s platform. Not just for COVID, but also for prophylactic and therapeutic approaches for many other indications in oncology, infectious disease and chronic illness”
-
Future Planet Capital Limited is a global venture capital and impact investor, connecting the world's largest investors to the best minds in order to address global challenges. The firm is focussed on providing growth capital to leading entrepreneurs and businesses from the world’s top universities and has deployed over $100M on behalf of institutional investors to date. Future Planet's deal team was led by Ed Phillips, supported by Lyle Pentith.
Future Planet backs Oxford's Navenio
“Navenio exemplifies our investment thesis; best-in-class innovation from the world’s top university wrapped into a highly commercial product and company with the potential to scale its impact to help billions of lives. Having established partnerships with the NHS, Cleveland Clinic, and some of the world’s largest outsourcers, we believe the company is poised to revolutionise healthcare efficiency worldwide. Also, the core indoor geo-location engine developed at Oxford’s computer science lab has achieved what competing tech giants in the space have not, and we believe this will be hugely valuable cross-industry.”
Align17 Announce Future Planet Capital as Founding Investment Partner
Future Planet Capital, the world’s first global platform to invest in leading universities and the “centres of innovation” that surround them, was today announced as a founding investment partner of Align17 at the World Economic Forum in Davos
Align17, a private impact investment platform that offers vetted co-investment opportunities to private wealth alongside world-class impact investors, will work to connect the $63.5tn of private wealth to the world-changing companies emerging from Future Planet Capital’s portfolio. FPC will offer the platform an unrivalled level of access to alumni and growth stage companies from Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Stanford, Tsinghua and the University of California through its series of partnerships.
Georgie Benardete, Co-Founder at Align 17, commented: "We are incredibly excited to have Future Planet Capital as one of our founding investment partners. Through their distinct set of university partnerships, they will bring unique opportunities for our private clients to achieve impact at scale through innovation."
Future Planet Capital Pledge up to £30m for Tsinghua University Spinouts
FPC Chairman, Lord Norman Foster and Executive Chairman, Douglas Hansen-Luke present x-lab's Bluepha with the 2017 Future Planet Award for Sustainable Growth.
Future Planet Capital (FPC), a London-based investor which funds innovative startups, has announced it will invest up to £30m in businesses spinning out from China's Tsinghua University.
Tsinghua University's X-lab is a platform which supports and facilitates startups founded by Tsinghua alumni, students or faculties. Since its launch in 2013, it has worked with more than 1190 project teams and incorporated over 480 companies.
FPC's investments will be focused on the ideas working to profitably tackle global challenges such as climate change, education, health and security.
Future Planet Capital announces Partnership with Owl Ventures
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.
