BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - The UK band of quoted technology commercialization companies has a new member, with the listing this week of Ipso Ventures plc.

The company joined the AIM market, raising £4.5 million (US$8.6 million) to support spinouts from UK universities and research institutes. About £3 million of the funding is committed to spinout companies from Loughborough University, Ipso's first partner.

Ipso CEO Nick Rodgers told BioWorld International, "There is a lot of pent-up demand [to find technology commercialization partners]. We think about 60 universities in the UK have valuable intellectual property, and to date only 16 have done deals, so there is a huge market still to go at."

Having the listing will enable the London-based company to go back to the market and raise more money when it signs further partnerships, Rodgers said.

Ipso joins counterparts including Amphion Innovations plc, IP Group plc, MMI plc, Imperial Innovations Group plc and BioFusion plc, on the AIM market. Rodgers said Ipso is modeled most closely on IP Group. In a previous position Rodgers was involved in the negotiation of IP Group's first two deals, with Oxford and Southampton universities.

"Obviously, there is an element of catch-up for us. But we have the benefit that we have the experience dating back to the first such partnerships," Rodgers said.

One of the key things learned as a result is the need to find good management teams to run spinouts, he said. "We push that to the fore in seeking partners, and have a lot of experience in this area," Rodgers said.

Ipso was founded in April 2005 by Rodgers and Simon Hunt, executive chairman. In June 2006 the company completed a £1.5 million pre-IPO round with RAB Capital, a London-based hedge fund.

To date Ipso has funded the start-up of three companies. Intelligent Wound Care Ltd., based on research carried out in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, is developing systems for monitoring the metabolic status of wounds. Therakind, a spinout company from the School of Pharmacy at Imperial, is involved in the formulation of pediatric medicines. And WildKey, a spinout from Oxford Brookes University, is developing educational software.

Under the deal with Loughborough, Ipso will provide initial capital for spinouts, plus ongoing strategic, commercial and financial support, in return for an equity stake in the companies. The company said it is in discussions with a number of other universities over similar partnerships. It aims to enter up to eight agreements over the next three years.