Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising intellectual property, has entered a strategic partnership with Abstract Mid-Tech, an associate company of Mark Glatman's Abstract Securities to create an innovation hub in Cambridge.
The partnership will see the group take a 20-year lease on a facility dedicated to start up and early-stage science and technology companies at Abstract’s newly developed South Cambridge Science Centre in Sawston, Cambridge.
Frontier IP intends to sublet space to its portfolio companies and other companies focused on deep technology and life sciences. The group will also move its commercialisation team, based in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, into the facility. In return for becoming an anchor tenant, Abstract has paid Frontier IP an upfront cash payment of £1 million and will provide the space rent free for the first 12 months.
The partners said that developing a facility at the SCSC will enable Frontier IP to cement and its presence at the heart of a world-leading Cambridge science and technology ecosystem and, by extension, within the UK’s innovation golden triangle.
The SCSC is close to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which includes Addenbrooke's Hospital, GSK, AstraZeneca, the Babraham Research Campus, Granta Park and Unity Campus. It is close to road and rail links and the city centre. The centre will also provide a base to support Frontier IP’s other portfolio companies from elsewhere in the UK, Italy and Portugal.
The group said it believes the innovation hub has the potential to launch a "step change" in its scale-up and growth by making it easier to identify and access new deal flow. It will also offer prospective companies high-quality space and networking opportunities and regular interaction with Frontier IP.
The group provides hands-on commercialisation services to start-up and early-stage companies. The centre will enable Frontier IP to showcase companies from across the portfolio to building relationships with existing investors and attract new investors, it says.
Under the terms of the agreement, Frontier IP is taking one floor of 18,000 square feet in the SCSC. The group will be responsible for the costs associated with the innovation hub, including investment in expanding or improving facilities, but will profit from any rental income above a "conservatively modelled breakeven point".
It is anticipated that the Frontier IP innovation hub will open by the end of 2025.
Frontier IP chief executive ONeil Crabb said in a statement: “We anticipate that a number of our portfolio companies will move in and that it will prove highly attractive to other potential start-ups and early-stage companies because of its place at the centre of Cambridge’s investor and science and technology networks.
“Our business model is based on identifying promising IP and providing hands-on commercialisation services to build successful businesses. Having a much closer physical presence between our commercialisation teams, portfolio companies and potential portfolio companies will enable us to accelerate their development and scale-up, and, eventually, successful exits.”
Abstract chief executive Mark Glatman, said: “We are delighted to welcome Frontier IP as our first occupier at the SCSC so soon after completing the first phase of development. This commitment is one of the most significant lettings in the wider Cambridge science market during 2025. It provides a very complementary offering within the space we have developed, creating synergies for a range of potential future occupiers from startups to more established life science and technology companies. They stand to benefit from close proximity to Frontier IP, investors, their portfolio companies and some of the specialist technology they will have in their facilities.”
SCSC, aimed at life sciences and biotechnology occupiers, is being developed in two phases on a brownfield site in Sawston, 6 miles south of Cambridge city centre.
Glatman's Abstract Securities, a specialist in commercial property development, investment and venture capital financing, gained detailed planning consent for the second phase of development at South Cambridge Science Centre comprising a building of 44,650 square feet in October. The first phase comprises 140,000 square feet.
Bidwells, DTRE and Newmark are retained letting agents.