UCL's commercialisation company renames as UCL Ventures

UCL Business Ltd, the commercialisation company of University College London, today announces that it has renamed as UCL Ventures, marking the next stage in its work to help UCL ideas, discoveries and technologies create real-world impact.

The new name follows extensive consultation with UCL academics, founders, investors, industry partners and wider stakeholders. It has been chosen to reflect the organisation’s central role in supporting UCL staff to bring their ideas, research and inventions to market through creating ventures of all kinds: from licensing breakthrough technologies and forming spinout companies to establishing social ventures.

For more than 30 years, the company has worked with UCL’s world-leading researchers to protect, develop and commercialise pioneering ideas across the full range of UCL’s academic research from life sciences, engineering, AI, deep tech, social innovation and the arts and humanities. Its work has helped create and grow global businesses, secure licensing deals and build partnerships that translate research excellence into products, services and solutions that deliver economic and societal impact.

A leading example is Autolus Therapeutics, a UCL spinout developing next-generation programmed T-cell therapies. Founded from research at UCL Cancer Institute with support from UCL Ventures, Autolus has grown into a Nasdaq-listed biopharmaceutical company with global reach, more than $1.1bn raised in investment capital and a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Stevenage. It is one of five UCL spinouts to have achieved a Nasdaq listing since 2018, alongside Orchard Therapeutics, Freeline Therapeutics, Achilles Therapeutics and MeiraGTx, collectively raising more than £2bn.

The move to UCL Ventures brings the organisation’s identity closer to the language used by researchers, founders and investors, while strengthening its connection to UCL and its ambition to turn knowledge into action for public benefit.

Dr Anne Lane, Chief Executive Officer of UCL Ventures, said: “Our new name reflects what we do every day: help brilliant ideas from UCL become ventures that can change lives, improve services, strengthen the economy and address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. UCL Ventures is a clearer, more confident expression of our purpose and our partnership with the UCL community.”

She added: “Commercialisation is no longer simply about creating companies or licensing intellectual property. It is about building the right route for each idea to reach the people who need it. That might mean a spinout, a licence, a social venture, an investor partnership or a collaboration with industry. Our new identity gives us the room to describe that breadth more accurately.”

The launch of UCL Ventures is accompanied by a refreshed visual identity and a new website, designed to make it easier for academics, entrepreneurs, investors and partners to understand how to work with the organisation and access support.

UCL Ventures remains a wholly owned subsidiary of University College London and will continue to provide the specialist commercialisation, intellectual property, venture creation, licensing and investment support that has underpinned UCL’s track record as one of the UK’s leading universities for research translation and spinout formation.

The name change takes effect from 29 June 2026.

Notes to editors

About UCL Ventures

UCL Ventures is the commercialisation company of University College London. It works with UCL academics, faculties and associated hospitals to protect, develop and commercialise pioneering ideas, innovations and technologies, helping them reach markets and communities where they can deliver positive real-world impact.

The organisation supports the full commercialisation journey, including intellectual property management, licensing, venture creation, investment readiness, funding partnerships and support for spinouts and social ventures.

About UCL

University College London was established in 1826 with a new vision: to make higher education accessible to all. As London’s first university, UCL challenged convention by admitting students regardless of faith, introducing practical subjects, and later granting women access to higher education alongside men.

UCL is one of the world’s leading research-intensive universities ranked 8th in the 2026/7 QS World rankings.

Media enquiries

For further information, interviews or images, please contact: nigel.campbell@uclventures.com