Aviva Investors makes £15 million venture & growth capital investment with Cambridge Innovation Capital

24 February 2025

(London) – Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc (‘Aviva’), announces it has made a £15 million investment with Cambridge Innovation Capital (‘CIC’), a leading venture capital firm which specialises in early-stage life sciences and deep tech companies in Cambridge. 

  • Investment builds on existing support for Cambridge innovation cluster

The investment has been made by the Aviva Investors Venture & Growth Capital LTAF (‘Long Term Asset Fund’), which launched in January with an initial commitment of approximately £150 million from Aviva and aims to give DC pension funds and wealth markets better access to innovative growth companies.

The commitment from Aviva Investors anchors CIC’s newly-launched Opportunity Fund, which has already made its first two investments, into Pragmatic and  Riverlane. Pragmatic is a world leader in semiconductor innovation and one of the UK’s largest chip designers and manufacturers. Riverlane specialises in the complex challenge of quantum error correction paving the way to make quantum computing useful, sooner.

Since its inception in 2013, CIC has raised £600 million and invested in more than 40 innovative and world-leading companies, helping to accelerate their growth. The company has a privileged relationship with the University of Cambridge, considered one of Europe’s top source of founders for venture-backed start-ups.

Aviva Investors’ commitment to the CIC Opportunity Fund aligns with UK Government plans to deliver the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, furthering the region’s ambition to be a world-leading life science, tech and innovation cluster1.

The investment with CIC follows a recent financing by the Aviva Investors Venture & Growth Capital LTAF in Cambridge-based Owlstone Medical, together with existing Aviva venture capital investments in the Cambridge market, including Ahren Innovation Capital and Amadeus Capital Partners. It also builds on Aviva Investors’ existing support for Cambridge’s life sciences and biotechnology community, which includes Chesterford Research Park, an advanced laboratory and office space for biotechnology, pharmaceutical and technology R&D companies, spread across 250 acres. Work is currently underway at the Park to deliver over 60,000 sq ft of additional laboratory and office space, as it looks to reinforce its reputation as a best-in-class location for global leaders in life sciences.

In 2019 Aviva Investors agreed to invest up to £250 million towards the creation of the CB1 Estate, a 26-acre master-planned development to regenerate and revitalise Station Road in central Cambridge, funding several buildings under the scheme including 10, 20, 30 and 50/60 Station Road, which are home to global leading companies including, Amazon and Samsung.

In June 2024, Aviva Investors announced it had forward funded the creation of 101 single-family homes as part of the Franklin Gardens community within the wider Darwin Green masterplan on the northwestern edge of Cambridge.

Ben Luckett, Managing Director, Venture and Strategic Capital, at Aviva Investors, said:

“We are very pleased to complete our latest investment in the Cambridge innovation cluster. CIC has a wealth of expertise in life sciences and deep tech, discovering and supporting pioneering companies like Pragmatic and Riverlane which can help the UK get ready for the future whilst putting it at the forefront of global innovation.

“As an investor with a long-standing presence in Cambridge, we understand its reputation as a world-leading technology cluster, the huge value of the unique ideas being created here, and their potential to create growth, success and impact. We believe CIC’s new Fund and its unrivalled access to these early-stage companies, will enable us to support their growth whilst aiming to deliver long-term investment outcomes.”

Andrew Williamson, Managing Partner at Cambridge Innovation Capital, added:

“CIC has traditionally invested in early-stage opportunities around Cambridge and has seen many of these companies mature into highly commercial businesses developing proven technologies. With this new Fund we will support our portfolio companies, and scaleups from the UK ecosystem, as they reach a defining moment in their growth – and at exactly the point where the UK often loses its most exciting businesses. We want to be a part of that change, and we’re delighted to be working with Aviva Investors to achieve this ambition.”

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/reeves-i-am-going-further-and-faster-to-kick-start-the-economy

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About Aviva Investors

Aviva Investors is the global asset management business of Aviva plc. The business delivers investment management solutions, services and client-driven performance to clients worldwide. Aviva Investors operates in 14 countries in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and the United Kingdom with £234 billion in assets under management as at 30 June 2024.

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