The fund itself is the brainchild of founder and managing partner Alice Newcome- Ellis—a Cambridge mathematics and physics graduate. This makes it the first ever investment vehicle in Cambridge founded by a band of brothers and sisters drawn purely from academia.
The scientists and technologists in the MedTech Magic Circle have pumped their own cash into the venture alongside external investors such as Aviva, Wittington Investments and cash-rich US families.
Ahren is evengelising a patient capital mantra, pledging to incubate investment over the long haul rather than cashing in on predatory short-term offers for red hot S & T breakthroughs. Quantum technology, interpretable machine learning and energy efficiency are among other areas of interest to the fund alongside pure biotechnology and DeepTech plays.
Also invested have Iris technology/biometrics recognition trailblazer John Daugman, famed researcher Zoubin Ghahramani for AI, biotech visionaries Sir Greg Winter and Professor Steve Jackson, astronomer royal Sir Martin Rees and nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan.
Cambridge Epigenetix was itself was founded by Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, one of the new Ahren fund’s superstar partners. He was also responsible for founding Solexa, which was the global game changer in genetic sequencing.
