What is the Cascade Fund?

Cascade is an early stage or Seed fund. It invests in activities that have moved beyond the scope of Research Council funding but which are still too early for conventional funding sources. The Cascade Fund has £4 million, 75% funded by the Office of Science & Technology (with contributions from the Wellcome Trust and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation) under the second round of the University Challenge Scheme, and 25% by the partner universities.

The Cascade Fund is managed by an independent fund manager, Generics Asset Management Limited (GAML) whose specialities include managing early stage seed funding of technology opportunities.

The operation of The Cascade Fund is supervised by the Cascade Board , whose members are entirely independent of the partner universities and who each have in-depth knowledge of the funding of new technology.

It is the intention of the Cascade Fund to leverage the £4m by seeking co-investment from Venture Capital and other sources of external finance.