Cambridge fund gives £4m boost to spinouts

Nigel Collier knew he had a good idea.

- Emma Haslett

The Cambridge professor had found a way to help firms that design large language models, the technology that powers AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, evaluate their data by applying principles used in human IQ testing. But he needed a way to show that it worked and money to do it.Many UK university spinout companies face a similar problem: they have a good idea but struggle to prove it works. Their concepts are too advanced for research grants but too early for seed funding, and they fall between the cracks.

Cambridge University’s technology investment fund (TIF) is a way to address the problem. The in-house fund was given five years and £10m from university coffers to help take its most entrepreneurial ideas from conception to proof-of-concept.