Old College Capital, the University’s venture investment fund, announced the expansion of its team and investment capacity earlier this month with an event featuring many of its successful portfolio companies.
Held at the Informatics Forum, Dr George Baxter, CEO of Edinburgh Innovations, welcomed around 200 guests to a series of keynote speeches, portfolio talks and a showcase of University startups, spinouts and spin-ins.
OCC began in 2012 as a pilot project led by Andrea Young. The fund has since made over 100 individual investment decisions, committing a cumulative total of more than £15 million. This investment has been further leveraged by approximately £100 million in direct co-investment from partners in the investment community.
Under Andrea’s leadership, OCC’s expanded team now consists of seven early-stage investment professionals who are passionate about investing in the most exciting ideas and technologies emerging from the University. OCC also recently announced the appointment of four Venture Partners who will work closely with the team and the portfolio to support companies to grow and scale.
OCC operates an evergreen model where returns to the fund are reinvested back into the University ecosystem to support future generations of ambitious deep-technology companies. Of a number of recent successes, OCC portfolio company Blackford Analysis was acquired in January 2023 by Bayer, a global life science company.
Andrea Young, Head of Investment at OCC, said:
It was fantastic to see so many friends of OCC gathered together to celebrate the success of the companies we have had the privilege of partnering with over the years.
The growth of our team, including the addition of our new Venture Partners, and the expansion of our investment capacity, means we can support more companies emerging from the University of Edinburgh ecosystem.
We are grateful for the support of Edinburgh Innovations as well as our longstanding Investment Committee, which includes University Vice Principal Dr Catherine Martin and Chair Hamish Mair. ”
