Three Scottish universities feature in a top 20 list for total number of spin-out companies generated, according to the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub and Beauhurst.
The University of Edinburgh is the highest-ranked Scottish university at 7th place, with the University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow featured at 12th and 17th respectively.
Other Scottish universities successfully generating spin-outs include Heriot-Watt University (21st), the University of Aberdeen (22nd), the University of Dundee (25th), and the University of St Andrews (35th).
Following the first edition published in 2021, the second report identifies Edinburgh and Glasgow as leading destinations for university-founded firms to locate. Edinburgh hosts 81 spin-outs, while Glasgow is home to 53 spin-outs in total.
Scottish Enterprise was ranked the UK’s top investor of the last decade by the number of equity deals into spin-out companies. A total of 232 equity deals for spin-outs were participated in by Scottish Enterprise between 2011 and 2021, with the next top investor, IP Group, participating in 118 deals.
The report revealed that there are currently 1,130 active spin-outs in the UK, as of January 2022, with investment in them almost doubling in 2021 at a record £2.54bn equity raised across 389 deals.
Pharmaceuticals was the highest-performing sector, along with research tools and analytics performing strongly. Artificial intelligence, precision medicine and healthtech are among the top emerging sectors.
The University of Oxford was the top university by number of spin-outs with 193 spinouts generated since 2011 – significantly more than other UK universities.
While only around half of all start-ups will survive for more than five years, the average lifetime for an academic spin-out is almost nine years, according to the report.
Maria Dramalioti-Taylor, managing partner at Beacon Capital, and member of the project steering group, said: “The report demonstrates that there is clearly strong ambition among academic institutions and entrepreneurs, matched by investors, to develop highly innovative engineering and technology companies in Scotland.”
Scottish Enterprise chief executive Adrian Gillespie said: “I’m delighted that we continue to be recognised for our unrivalled support as the UK’s number one backer by number of investments.
“I would also like to recognise the key role that our world class universities and co-investment partners have made in funding and supporting the many brilliantly innovative companies who are central to the very strong and fast growing innovation ecosystem in Scotland.”
As part of its ambition to support innovation, the academy is also developing a guide for entrepreneurs wishing to spin out from their universities, based on the experiences of Enterprise Hub members, as well as a toolkit to support spin-outs and other start-ups to embed more diverse and inclusive cultures in their operations.
The hub was formally launched in April 2013. Since then, it has supported more than 290 researchers, recent graduates and leaders to start-up and scale-up businesses that can give practical application to their inventions. It has awarded more than £11m in grant funding, with members going on to raise around £800m in additional funding.
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