Humboldt secures precedent-setting €50M tech transfer fund

Humbold-Universität, Berlin.

First London will act as fund manager and the fund will have no time limit. It will use its own assets to fund investments, and may also work with institutional co-investors and local Business Angels.

Notable recent successful spin-outs from Humboldt in Berlin include the German version of the social networking site Facebook, StudiVZ, the largest on-line social networking community in Germany, which was acquired recently by a German publishing company

Humboldt-Universitat has over 30,000 students and 350  professors. It attracts a large number of researchers who are creating innovative intellectual property and research applications in a wide range of research areas, including  environmental technology, biotechnology and financial markets.

In 2005 the university set up Humboldt Innovation,  a knowledge and technology transfer and investment organisation, to manage research commercialisation. Humboldt-Innovation  acts as a business interface, advising, funding and promoting spin-outs and handling the industrial and contract  research portfolio of the university. Humboldt-Innovation currently supports 20 spin-out projects.

Guy Saxton, Chief Executive of First London, said Humboldt-Innovation is highly regarded across Europe by entrepreneurs and the academic world for its hands-on  business-building  skills. “It has an impressive track record of commercialising university spin-outs, and by making up to €50 million of capital commitments,  First  London  will help it to significantly increase its IP commercialisation programme.”

“This deal  gives  us  a reliable and proven partner with access to all the interesting IP of Germany’s leading research university.  Humboldt has a well deserved world-class reputation for research, innovation and commercialisation.”

Saxton added that First London has hired a specialist team to manage the fund. “Intellectual Property and  potential research applications will be refined to meet market demand  thus providing optimal use of the research capability available. It is important for the future success of Europe’s economy that the London market is married to Europe’s leading research organisations.”

Professor Michael Linscheid, Vice President of Research at Humboldt. said, “A commercialisation fund of this size is unique in Germany. We especially hope  to motivate our scientists, young researchers and outstanding students to take advantage of the funds in order to close the gap between basic research and marketable products.”

Dirk Radzinski, CEO Humboldt Innovation, added, “The creation of the First London technology  transfer fund will act as a further catalyst to the successful commercialisation of the university’s intellectual property. It offers the vital and fast access to capital for innovative intellectual property from the university.”