Plugging One VC Gap

Two years ago, the UK's publicly-funded Medical Research Council set up a new venture fund with a right of first refusal to all MRC-funded technology. Its British VC competitors greeted the newcomer, which claimed to want to fill a gap in seed-stage investing, coolly--they felt that no such gap existed and that UK Medical Ventures Fund would have an unfair advantage. Whether they're still jealous is uncertain, but they are doing deals with the new fund, which has significantly stepped up the rate at which MRC technology is transferred to the marketplace.