Midlands Mindforge

Our partnership of eight research intensive universities established Midlands Mindforge in 2023 to accelerate the commercialisation of university spinouts and early-stage IP rich businesses in the region. 

Commercialisation of IP via spinouts requires significant long-term financial funding and other specialist resources. Lack of access to finance in the region’s research and innovation ecosystem might be hindering the ability of companies emerging from our universities to access capital in sufficient quantities.

Nationally, total investments made in university spinouts have risen significantly in the last decade, with greater levels of funding going to the Golden Triangle (London, Oxford and Cambridge). The average spinout in the Golden Triangle raises 4.6 times as much capital as one in the Midlands in the first seven years, and will have a 3.5 times bigger exit value.

To tackle this Midlands Innovation universities established an independent investment vehicle, Midlands Mindforge Limited (MML) which plans to raise up to £250 million from strategic corporate partners, institutional investors and qualifying individuals. It aims to ‘invest with impact’ to found and scale transformational science backed companies in sectors such as Clean Technologies, AI & Computational Science, Life Sciences & Health Tech, to create highly skilled jobs and support the UK’s ambition to become a science and technology superpower.