BRAVEHEART, the Perth-based investment syndicate, has strengthened its ties with academia after signing a 15-year commercialisation deal with Aberdeen University.
Scotland's third-oldest seat of learning – home to nearly 14,000 students – has built up a strong reputation in the fields of life science, medicine, engineering and geosciences. To date, it has attracted research awards of up to £50 million
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Braveheart, which already has similar tie-ups with Strathclyde and Edinburgh universities, said it would work closely with Aberdeen to ramp up the commercialisation of intellectual property (IP) coming out of the institution.
Funding from the firm will be used to finance spin-out companies, with Braveheart gaining exclusive right of first refusal over investment opportunities in a number of defined areas.
Funding will initially be provided via Braveheart's existing Alpha EIS fund and amount to some £5m over a period of between two and five years.
A dedicated fund is expected to follow, with cash coming from Braveheart, the university and external sources. That second phase of the agreement is likely to last for up to ten years.
Braveheart chief executive Geoffrey Thomson – one of four businessmen who set up the firm in 1997 – said: "This is an exciting development for us. Aberdeen took some time to decide to do a partnership and I am delighted that they have chosen us.
"If we end up getting two or three companies spun out of the university a year we'd be pretty pleased. It's all about the quality of those businesses rather than the number."
Professor Dominic Houlihan, vice-principal for research and commercialisation at Aberdeen University, added: "The university has a strong track record of high-quality research and the translation of that research into commercialisation opportunities."
Commenting on research published in yesterday's Scotsman which suggested that funding should be targeted on a much smaller number of spin-out companies, Thomson said:
"I think it's better off starting out with a relatively small level of cash and as the investment needs more money you cherry pick a bit more.
"Things often go off in a completely different direction. You need to be prepared to adapt the business plan and change the investment criteria as you go along."
Separately, Braveheart yesterday said it had co-led a £1m financing of IM-Sense, a technology spin-out from the University of East Anglia. The firm, which has also attracted backing from "a number of high net worth individuals", is developing an automatic enhancement system for digital photos and video clips.
The long-term goal is to have the technology embedded in camera equipment and mobile phones.
The late finalisation of yesterday's two-deals has pushed back Braveheart's annual results until tomorrow, the company added.
Shortfall troubles potential investorsSCOTLAND lacks sufficient management expertise to help university spin-outs compete on a global scale, a leading accountant yesterday warned.
Robert Hannah, a partner in Grant Thornton's technology industry group, told The Scotsman that the situation was particularly prevalent in the life sciences sector.
He called on Scottish Enterprise to help increase management education in universities to tackle the problem, or, "buy in" expertise from the United States.
Hannah said: "For venture capitalists, there is concern about management. Venture capital would engage more if management could take companies to a higher level.
"Serious money could be spent to bring US businessmen who have done it before."
Hannah said some companies in the US had used endowment funds to bring management talent into spin– out companies.
He added: "Providing more money does not in itself ensure success. Ultimately the success will be driven by the quality of the product or service and the quality of the management team delivering.
"The long-term issues of accessing proven quality management, particularly around sales and marketing, still require to be addressed."
Hannah's call came after yesterday's report from Targeting Innovation, which called for funding to be given to fewer university spin-outs in order to give them a greater chance of success.
George Boag, chief executive of Targeting Innovation's, said: "The companies that have been successful identified the need for commercial management at an early stage".
Eleanor Taylor, head of Scottish Enterprise's proof of concept programme, said: "From experience, we have recognised the need for strong management skills in these research project teams, so we wrap management support around the projects early on.
"We have excellent relationships with global commercialisation organisations, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."
