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.
New report by Lord Wei calls on investors and governments to support impactful investing
New report by Lord Wei calls on investors and governments to support impactful investing
Lord Wei of Shoreditch, Future Planet Capital Advisory Board Member
Many of the challenges we face require levels of innovation that only impact investing can foster and provide. To keep taxes low and come through the ongoing energy crisis, we need breakthroughs in tackling climate change. To ride through the current and any future pandemic, we need to future proof and decentralise our healthcare system through technology. To prepare for a huge shift in our labour force, for automation and its impact on skills requirements, and for supply chain disruption – we need new technology to enable training and education.
Lord Nat Wei of Shoreditch, Future Planet Capital Advisory Board Member
“The Wei Forward 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.
Backing innovative solutions to solve pressing issues does however require collective action, the report calls for a concerted effort to be made by all stakeholders to unlock venture’s potential and proposes a series of policy measures, including:
Governments must play a larger role as a procurer of innovation and encourage impactful venture investing with green and impact-oriented tax breaks, rewarding the next generation of young savers to back impactful investing
Pensions industry regulators should take a more balanced risk approach and favour impactful investing. To not do so, given the societal and planetary risks we face, is a risk itself; one that the regulatory system should be accountable for, alongside protecting the immediate financial returns and assets of members.
Society and the general consumer must play a more active role in holding legislative, ruling and regulatory bodies to account, using tools such as the Companies Act 2006, Section 172.
Lord Wei of Shoreditch, Member of the Future Planet Capital Advisory Board, commented: “We have come a long way in reversing the crises of our age, but to secure this progress for future generations requires us to go further; to not just talk green but act green. The technologies needed to achieve Net Zero simply do not exist today, nor do the tools to protect us against the next pandemic. To secure these, there needs to be a dramatic increase in the flow of capital to the world’s best scientists and engineers.”
“While much of the responsibility for expanding impact investing rests with VC investors and founders, policy makers, regulators, LPs, pension funds and consumers must all play a critical role in bringing impact to mainstream adoption must be recognised and harnessed. Through this report, I hope to kickstart a practical conversation as to how we can all endeavour to deliver positive change.”
Douglas Hansen-Luke, Chair of Future Planet Capital, added: “We at Future Planet Capital have always believed in the power of profit and purpose; creating channels for large scale investment to back the best brains tackling the biggest global issues. There is now a general recognition that science and centres of innovation have a fundamental role in addressing global challenges and that the government and private sectors can materially accelerate and scale the impact of their work. We grew out of that desire to make difference, and I look forward to working with many likeminded stakeholders to help put this report’s ideas into practice.”
PragmatIC raises $80M Series D
We are delighted to announce that our Portfolio company, PragmatIC Semiconductors has completed an $80M Series D.
CAMBRIDGE, England- (BUSINESS WIRE) -PragmatIC Semiconductor, a world leader in flexible electronics, is proud to announce that it has secured $80 million of Series C funding. This scale-up investment will be used to build a second FlexLogIC fab in the North East of England, to meet the growing demand for ultra-low-cost flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs) for the Internet of Everything, and strengthening the position of the UK in its ambition to be a leading designer and manufacturer of next generation semiconductors.
“This successful Series C round is a testament to the potential for our technology to enable trillions of smart items and address key UN sustainable development goals”
“This successful Series C round is a testament to the potential for our technology to enable trillions of smart items and address key UN sustainable development goals,” said Scott White, CEO of PragmatIC Semiconductor. “Our FlexLogIC-002 fab will deliver significantly higher capacity than our first line, whilst still maintaining our signature ultra-low capex, fast production cycle time and minimal carbon footprint. In addition to supporting our continued commercial ramp, it provides a template for rolling out a distributed global network of FlexLogIC systems, offering a Fab-as-a-Service (FaaS) for dedicated production on major customer sites to enable efficient and secure semiconductor supply chains.”
Erik Langaker, independent Chair of the Board, added: “This capital raise is a fantastic recognition of the achievements of Scott White, Richard Price and their team. The round has been subscribed by a highly qualified select group of industrial and individual investors with significant experience in the semiconductor industry. Their backing will enable the team to more than double in size over the next 12 months and expand capacity to fulfil the rapidly growing demand for electronics in everyday objects.
PragmatIC’s development over the past few years has seen the launch of its flagship ConnectIC® product line of ultra-low-cost RFID FlexICs, as well as its FlexIC Foundry® service enabling innovative designers to create more pioneering products and advance them rapidly from concept to reality. This year it has demonstrated an order-of-magnitude improvement in complexity and compute capability for non-silicon chips by producing flexible microprocessors. These include the iconic 6502 and PlasticArm, an ultra-minimalist Arm® Cortex®-M0 based system-on-a-chip which is 12 times more complex than previous state-of-the-art flexible electronics.
PlasticArm is the result of many years of collaboration between the two companies, a partnership that is set to continue long into the future with semiconductor IP leader Arm participating in this funding round.
“Billions of everyday objects could benefit from being part of the Internet of Things, but to continue to scale sustainably we need to explore new approaches for embedding intelligence into everyday objects,” said Dipesh Patel, chief technology officer at Arm. “Flexible electronics can extend the range and scope of what is possible today and we see massive potential for it to be creatively adopted by the Arm ecosystem, leading to innovation with global impact.
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
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”
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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”
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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.”
FPC & 8GT sign 3bn RMB MOU during PM's trip to China
FPC & 8GT sign one of the biggest ever single commitments to British innovation
Shenzen Qian Hai Sunflower Financial Services and Jian Xin Tian Ran Investment Management will in principle invest 3 billion RMB ($470 million)
Boosts healthcare innovation and bio-technology collaboration between the UK and China
The agreement was signed during UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s state visit to China and witnessed by Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox.
Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman at Future Planet Capital, said: “We are honoured to support 8GT’s leading scientists and delighted to be part of a consortium receiving China's biggest ever single investment into foreign IP. This partnership demonstrates our continued commitment to accelerating innovation in leading centres of innovation around the world. This collaborative effort is unique: we look forward to working together closely to fund the companies of the future addressing global challenges today."
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.
