The Cambridge Phenomenon
St John’s Innovation Centre
Estonian Trade Delegation
5th November 2014
David Gill
The Cambridge Cluster Today
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Physical science/engineering
Life sciences
IT/telecoms
Other (cleantech, services….)
14 x $1bn companies
2 x $10bn companies
1,500+ tech based firms
Employing 57,000 people
26% of workforce in
knowledge sectors (vs 12%
UK average)
• Generating £13bn total
revenues
Shanghai Jiao Tong Ranking 2014
Rank Institution
Country
1
Harvard
US
2
Stanford
US
3
MIT
US
4
Berkeley
US
5
Cambridge
UK
6
Princeton
US
7
CalTech
US
8
Columbia
US
9
Chicago
US
10
Oxford
UK
Argon
Design
Neul
James Collier
Glenn Collinson
Robert Young
William Webb
DFJ Esprit
Pronostics
Steve
(merged with Merged with
Barlow
FingerPrint Continuum Martin Renamed
Acquired by Diagnostics)
Photonics Frost
as
Broadcom
AltraNova
Sagentia
Acquired by
Dainippon
Screen
CMR Fuel
Cells
TurfTrax
Steve Blatcher
Michael Priestnall
Cambridge
Carbon Capture
Green-Tide Michael Evans
Turbines
Michael Priestnall
Michael Evans
Adam Mills
PlaqueTec
Semblant
Well Cow
Frank Ferdinandi
Syrris
Aegate
Ian Rhodes
Plarion
Bob Longman
EXACSYS
Michael
Noble
Rob
Morland
Array
Logic
(Plasmon)
Team
Consultin
Andy Fry
g
Ian J. Smith
John Poley
David Edwards
Jeremy Crisp
Imogen Gill
Bruce Macmichael
John Conway
Andy Thurman
Adam Mills
Omnisense
Rob Morland
Ian Hosking
Intrasonics
Mark Gilligan
Richard Gray
ADI
Octymo
Richard
Walker
Acquired by
Mediatek
Howard BiddleAcquired by
42
John Wilks Motorola
Cambridg
Tony Milbourn
Technology
e Design
Gordon Aspin
Meridica
Partnershi
Mark Collins
Nujira Mike
p
Richard Fry
Camitri
Cognovo
Beadman
Tim Haynes
Mike Cane
Sunplus
Tony Milbourn
Acquired 2006
Acquired by
MM
Gordon Aspin
by Pfizer
CSR
William Harrold
Charles Sturman,
Qasara
Pascal Herczog
Mark Collins
Richard Fry
Michael
Ronny Jonckheere
Barkway
2010
Pascal Herczog
But……
Opportunity of a Crisis
• 1845: Cambridge station, 2 miles from Centre
• 1950: Holford planning guidelines
– Cambridge to remain small medieval market town
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Mid-1960s: IBM refused EU research HQ
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1969: Mott Report
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Even Cambridge had to rethink
Smoke-stack vs science-based industries
1970: Cambridge Science Park
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Land owned since 1546, poor condition
Vision of Sir John Bradfield, uncertain beginnings
No public funding, 61.5 hectares, 145,540m2
Cambridge Cluster - Evolution
1209: Nominal foundation date - University
1534: University Press as first spin-out
1869: Cavendish Laboratory founded
1960: Cambridge Consultants formed
‘put brains of Cambridge at disposal of the problems of industry’
1970: Cambridge Science Park 1970, first in UK
Relaxation of planning laws for new industries
1985: The Cambridge Phenomenon, SQW report
350 high-tech firms, emerging cluster
1987: St John’s Innovation Centre 1987
First technology incubator in Europe
How……
World-class Consultancies
People & Culture
• High-trust, low-touch,
‘collegiate’ culture
• Now many serial
entrepreneurs/angels
• Recent ‘Godfathers’:
– Sir John Bradfield, Dr Chris
Johnson, Lord Broers, Dr
Hermann Hauser, Lord
Sainsbury, Walter Herriott,
Matthew Bullock
• ‘Superordinate goals’
Cambridge News
“A Safe Place to Do Risky Things”
General
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Time: Cambridge cluster now 50 years old
Scale: 350 high-tech firms in 1985, 1,525 today
Supportive infrastructure: advisers, premises, networks
Culture: entrepreneurship welcomed, many role models
Reputation: brand/name assists international outreach
University
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People: graduates most effective tech-transfer
Research: blue-sky led to MRI, gene sequencing, LEDs…
Values: light-touch, high-trust, bottom-up model
Gravitational pull: Microsoft, Philips, Nokia, Rolls Royce…
But……
The Brilliant 14 Global Successes?
Mkt Cap
£bn
ARM
t/o £m
Employees
14.14
715
6.2
bought by HP
227 Bought
1.55
bought by Qualcomm
2474 Bought
0.9
335
2400 LSE
1.36
n/a
1600 LSE
0.702
bought by AZ
300 Bought
?
>1000
4500 Private
Globespan
and then
private
?
Ionica
>1.0
-
Solexa
Absorbed
by
Illumina Bought
Bought
by Celltech
then UCB Bought
Acambis
0.276
Bought by
Sanofi-Aventis Bought
Abcam
0.988
122
Autonomy
Cambridge Silicon Radio
Domino Printing
Aveva
Cambridge Antibody Technology
Marshall Group
Virata
Cambridge Semiconductor
Chiroscience
1996 LSE
Conexant Merged
? Uni spin-out
1200 Crashed
>650 LSE
“Large Enough, But Still Intimate”
• Some Cambridge ‘big’ firms no longer UK-owned
• Cambridge not capable of hosting largest companies?
– Infrastructure, housing and transport limitations
– City Deal: 25-30% expansion 2011-31
• Much of Cambridge tech innovation is B2B:
– Not faster internet/games/app B2C setors
– Deep science/technology does not grow fast?
• Cambridge companies need >10 years to mature
The Next Generation
Questions?
St John’s Innovation Centre
SJIC History & Purpose
Established by St John’s College in 1987 to provide flexible accommodation and
business support services to early-stage, knowledge-based companies
A commercial business, with income paid over to St John’s College, University of
Cambridge
St John’s Innovation Park – in the DMZ
Innovation Centre Accommodation
• 53,000 sq ft of lettable space (= 4,924 m2; gross 6,100m2)
• Units range from 100-3,500 sq ft in size (= 9.3 – 325 m2)
• Tenants can grow by taking on more units
– or moving to larger ones
• Renewable leases (typically 2 years)
– with only 1 month’s notice of termination for small units,
– 3 months’ notice for large ones
• Rates are negotiated individually
• ‘Easy in, easy out’ leases
Flexibility of lease is one of the success factors of the Centre
Typical Tenants
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Entry ±18 months after start-up
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Exploiting innovation commercially
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Some older knowledge-based companies: 10%
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Service companies:
– provide training, marketing, networking, public relations: 20% limit
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Average size: 5-10 people
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Average stay: 4.25 years
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Around 80-90 tenants at any time
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25% Cambridge graduates
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±370 virtual tenants
Some Examples – Ex-tenants
• Autonomy Corporation plc, founded 1996:
– Unstructured information search
– 2nd largest pure software company in Europe, offices worldwide
– Sold to HP October 2011 @ $10.2bn
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RedGate: software tools for database administrators/developers (1999)
Jagex: online computer games, including RuneScape and FunOrb (2001)
Owlstone: button-sized programmable chemical sensor (2004)
Breathing Buildings: low-energy natural building ventilation (2006)
Amantys: intelligent power electronics – switches, drives, controls
(2010)
Formal Business Development
• GrowthAccelerator – SME coaching programme
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Aimed at firms able/willing to grow 20%+ year on year
Coaching for team (< 7 days)
Some workshop training (< 3 days)
Specialist tracks for access to finance, innovation
“The vital 6%”
• Previous programme
– 30 months: 950 trained/advised, ±£20m raised, 120 jobs
Questions?