Insurance provider Aviva has put its weight behind the £100m ($129m) Ahren Innovation Capital fund, co-founded by eight scientists from the Cambridge, UK ecosystem, the Financial Times reported today.
Diversified holding group Wittington Investments and undisclosed US families have also backed the fund, as have the eight researchers. Ahren expects to raise “substantially more” capital over the next few months.
Ahren was formed last year and is already operational, having led a $30m series C round for Cambridge Epigenetix, a UK-based epigenetic technologies spinout of University of Cambridge, in May this year.
The patient capital fund focuses on four core areas – the human brain and artificial intelligence, genetics and biotechnology, space and robotics, and energy and environmental technologies. The eight researchers will take an active role in supporting portfolio companies.
Ahren is led by managing partner Alice Newcombe-Ellis, who graduated from Cambridge with a degree in mathematics and signed up a roster of science partners with a connection to the institution.
These partners include Shankar Balasubramanian, a professor in the department of chemistry and co-founder of Cambridge Epigenetix, and Andy Parker, head of physics at the university.
Venki Ramakrishnan, president of scientific body Royal Society and Nobel laureate, is also a science partner, as are John Daugman, a professor of computer vision and pattern recognition who invented iris recognition, and Zoubin Ghahramani, professor of information engineering.
Steven Jackson, the Frederick James Quick professor of biology, and Greg Winter, a genetic engineer and master of Trinity College, have also backed the fund, as has Martin Rees, emeritus professor of cosmology and astrophysics.