The Cambridge PhenomenonSt John’s Innovation Centre

David Gill

Estonian Trade Delegation5th November 2014

The Cambridge Cluster Today

• 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

Physical science/engineeringLife sciencesIT/telecomsOther (cleantech, services….)

Shanghai Jiao Tong Ranking 2014 Rank Institution Country1 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

2006

2010

Sunplus MM

Michael Barkway

Acquired by Motorola

Merged with Continuum Photonics

Nujira

Tim Haynes

Neul

James Collier Glenn Collinson

Robert Young William Webb

CMR Fuel Cells

Michael Priestnall Michael Evans

Michael Evans

Michael PriestnallCambridge

Carbon Capture

Green-Tide Turbines

Acquired by CSR

Cognovo

Tony Milbourn Gordon Aspin Charles Sturman, Mark Collins Richard FryRonny Jonckheere Pascal Herczog

Acquired by Broadcom

Argon Design

Steve Barlow

Renamed as

Sagentia

Pronostics (merged with FingerPrint

Diagnostics)

DFJ Esprit

Meridica

Ian J. SmithJohn Poley

David Edwards Jeremy Crisp

Imogen GillBruce Macmichael

John Conway

Acquired by Pfizer

TurfTrax Adam Mills

Omnisense

Andy ThurmanAdam Mills

AltraNova

Rob Morland Ian Hosking

Martin Frost

Intrasonics

Acquired by Dainippon Screen

Camitri

Tony Milbourn Gordon Aspin Mark Collins Richard Fry

Qasara William Harrold Pascal Herczog

ADI

Acquired by Mediatek

Octymo

Richard Walker

Syrris Mark Gilligan Richard Gray

Cambridge Design Partnershi

pMike BeadmanMike Cane

Well Cow

42 Technology

Howard BiddleJohn Wilks

Team Consultin

g

Andy Fry

Array Logic

(Plasmon)

Rob Morland

Plarion

Bob Longman

Aegate

Ian Rhodes

PlaqueTec Steve Blatcher

EXACSYS

Michael Noble

Semblant Frank Ferdinandi

But……

Opportunity of a Crisis• 1845: Cambridge station, 2 miles from Centre• 1950: Holford planning guidelines

– Cambridge to remain small medieval market town• Mid-1960s: IBM refused EU research HQ

– Even Cambridge had to rethink• 1969: Mott Report

– Smoke-stack vs science-based industries• 1970: Cambridge Science Park

– 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 - University1534: 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 UKRelaxation of planning laws for new industries

1985: The Cambridge Phenomenon, SQW report350 high-tech firms, emerging cluster

1987: St John’s Innovation Centre 1987First 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

General• 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• 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…

“A Safe Place to Do Risky Things”

But……

The Brilliant 14 Global Successes?Mkt Cap

£bnt/o £m Employees

ARM 14.14 715 1996 LSE

Autonomy 6.2 bought by HP 227 Bought

Cambridge Silicon Radio 1.55 bought by Qualcomm 2474 Bought

Domino Printing 0.9 335 2400 LSE

Aveva 1.36 n/a 1600 LSE

Cambridge Antibody Technology 0.702 bought by AZ 300 Bought

Marshall Group ? >1000 4500 Private

Virata Globespan and then Conexant Merged

Cambridge Semiconductor private ? ? Uni spin-out

Ionica >1.0 - 1200 Crashed

Solexa Absorbed by Illumina Bought

Chiroscience Bought by Celltech then UCB Bought

Acambis 0.276 Bought by Sanofi-Aventis Bought

Abcam 0.988 122 >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

• Entry ±18 months after start-up

• Exploiting innovation commercially

• Some older knowledge-based companies: 10%

• Service companies:– provide training, marketing, networking, public relations: 20% limit

• Average size: 5-10 people

• Average stay: 4.25 years

• Around 80-90 tenants at any time

• 25% Cambridge graduates

• ±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

• 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• 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?