IP Group's core business is the creation of value for its shareholders and partners through the commercialisation of intellectual property originating from research intensive institutions. Their strength lies in managing this process from finding suitable intellectual property to commercialise to either helping develop businesses and create value out of them, or identifying and establishing appropriate commercial partnerships to do so. IP Group's extensive expertise in this area combined with its inside knowledge of both industry and finance have enabled the group to create a formidable track record of consistently delivering excellent results for their companies, for their partners and for their shareholders.

IP Group

Bloc Ventures is an investment company focused on investments in early-stage Deep Tech companies. Pitch directly to Bloc here: https://blocventures.com/pitching/ Bloc Ventures is not an investment fund, it is a company that invests in early-stage tech companies. Bloc Ventures is very much a company in the traditional sense, with a rigorous focus on governance, costs, and profit, governed by a board of directors with an operational model that enables its stakeholders to focus on building value through a longer-term collaborative and evergreen approach to early-stage tech investing. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in London, England.

Bloc Ventures

IQ Capital is a Cambridge & London-based VC firm that invests in ‘deep tech’ companies capable of dominating their respective markets on a global scale. Initial investments at Seed and Series A range from £0.5m to £10m, with capacity for follow-on investment up to £30m through the Growth Fund. The team has achieved over 30 exits including to Apple, Huawei, Google and Oracle.

IQ Capital

Swisscom Ventures is an venture capital arm of Swisscom AG, that specializes in early stage tech investments founded in 2007. Swisscom Ventures invests in growth companies with emerging business models and technologies of strategic relevance to Swisscom's core business. As a value-add investor, Swisscom brings its investees the technical expertise and strategic insights of an incumbent telecom operator. We act as a bridge to Swisscom's operational business units, which portfolio companies can also leverage as a test environment for their products and services. Swisscom Ventures seeks minority stakes in companies related to the information/communications/entertainment space.

Swisscom Ventures

Parkwalk is a London-based fund management firm.  Parkwalk invests in UK technology companies that have IP backing and freedom to operate, generally spun out of UK universities. Their funds seek to generate capital gains for their investors, enhanced by the attractive tax relief provided by EIS. Parkwalk entered this investment sector in 2009, anticipating a wave of tax-efficient incentives launched by the UK Government to stimulate innovative emerging technology companies and thereby help drive economic growth. Parkwalk utilises academic, technology transfer, venture capital and personal networks developed over many years to gain access to the highest calibre deal-flow.                                                                                                                 In 2017 Parkwalk joined forces with IP Group plc, a leading intellectual property commercialisation company that is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IPO. As at March 2019 the combined group has net assets of £1.2bn.

Parkwalk Advisors

Hostplus is an industry superannuation fund for the hospitality, tourism, recreation, and sport industries.

Hostplus

Touchstone Innovations create, build and invest in pioneering technology companies and licensing opportunities developed from outstanding scientific research focusing on the ‘Golden Triangle’ of London, Cambridge and Oxford.   Their robust strategy and fully integrated business model, proven over many years, begins with original idea and extends through intellectual property (IP) protection, company formation, seed funding, incubation, scale-up and supportive investment.  This provides us with a unique insight into leveraging early-stage research and turning it into substantial, high-quality, well-managed and well-funded commercial businesses.  They help scientists and entrepreneurs to commercialise their idea by protecting and licensing intellectual property, leading the formation of new companies, recruiting high-calibre management teams and providing and supporting investment.  They provide continuity of funding from start-up to scale-up, with initial investments from seed stage onwards. They remain an active investor throughout the lifetime of their portfolio companies, with the majority of their investment each year going into businesses they have lived with and understood for some time. This strategy substantially de-risks investment scale-up in their portfolio companies.  Touchstone Innovations is at the forefront of UK early-stage technology investment. Alongside their co-investors they have leveraged over £1.5 billion to help drive high technology innovation in the UK.

Touchstone Innovations

AccelerComm

AccelerComm is an exciting semiconductor IP-core company that provides solutions to accelerate the next generations of wireless communications (3GPP rel 14, rel 15 and beyond).  Their technology solves the bottleneck that would otherwise limit the speed of next generation wireless communication, namely the error correction decoding that is required to overcome the effects of noise, interference and poor signal strength.

AccelerComm offers a suite of high-performance 5G NR (new radio) physical layer intellectual property (IP) core solutions for O-RAN Option 6 and Option 7.x, aimed at specialized applications like low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and terrestrial small-cell networks. These solutions leverage AccelerComm’s proprietary core 5G acceleration technologies to maximize link performance using patented signal processing techniques.&nbsp;

UK 5G startup AccelerComm raises £21.5m

Southampton's AccelerComm joins Open Compute Project for 5G innovation

AccelerComm Raises £21.5M in Series B Funding

5G NR Modem Solutions

AccelerComm’s signal gets supercharged with £21.5 million funding round

ICURe Programme

AccelerComm secures £21.5m series B funding to supercharge 5G

University of Southampton spinout AccelerComm scores £5.8 million to 'supercharge 5G communications'

AccelerComm secures £5.8m Series A funding from IQ Capital, Bloc Ventures and IP Group

A new generation for mobile connectivity with 5G and beyond

Next-gen Private Mobile Networks

AccelerComm Welcomes Radisys to 5G LEO Satellite Regenerative Base Station Ecosystem Partner Program

AccelerComm offers a suite of high-performance 5G NR (new radio) physical layer intellectual property (IP) core solutions for O-RAN Option 6 and Option 7.x, aimed at specialized applications like low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and terrestrial small-cell networks. These solutions leverage AccelerComm’s proprietary core 5G acceleration technologies to maximize link performance using patented signal processing techniques.&nbsp;AccelerComm delivers its technology through an openly licensable IP that can be integrated into custom silicon (ASIC), programmable hardware (FPGA), or delivered as software solutions. AccelerComm also develops a software-defined High PHY to support ARM processor architecture. The company also offers a portfolio of “5G NR High PHY Accelerator” algorithms to improve performance and efficiency, remove noise and interference, and increase the degrees of parallel processing.&nbsp;The company’s LDPC’s algorithm reportedly can improve block error rate by 0.7 dB and its “MIMO” equalizer can double uplink performance and spectral efficiency. A study in January 2022 demonstrated that AccelerComm's channel equalization solution could deliver up to 33.7% network cost savings in private network implementations.&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships<ol><li>In December 2023, AccelerComm's 3GPP LDPC accelerator IP was licensed by AMD for use on its T2 Telco Accelerator Card.</li><li>The company also collaborated with Vodafone on Open RAN silicon chips development (2022).&nbsp;</li><li>AccelerComm's solutions have been integrated by other customers like Intel and National Instruments.</li><li>In September 2023, AccelerComm partnered with Radisys Corporation, RFDSP, and TTP to develop an LEO regenerative 5G RAN reference solution architecture.</li><li>AccelerComm has also partnered with Software Radio Systems to develop air-to-ground networks and LEO satellite networks.&nbsp;</li></ol>

Astranis is a San Francisco-based satellite manufacturer and operator that provides services to commercial customers and the US Government. The company specializes in building small, low-cost telecommunications satellites designed to provide broadband internet access to underserved areas worldwide. These satellites, which can operate from geostationary orbit (GEO) at an altitude of approximately 22,000 mi above Earth, are "MicroGEO" satellites, which are significantly smaller (~400 kg) and less expensive than traditional GEO satellites. The company owns, operates, and offers its satellites to commercial customers on a leasing basis.The company's proprietary technology includes software-defined radio payloads allowing frequency and coverage flexibility.&nbsp;In April 2023, Astranis launched its first commercial satellite, Arcturus, to provide internet service in Alaska. However, the satellite experienced issues with its solar array system, limiting its operational capacity.Astranis unveiled its next-generation satellite, Omega, in April 2024. Omega satellites are designed to deliver over 50 Gbps of throughput with an operational life of 10 years. The company aimed to manufacture 24 Omega satellites annually by 2025, launch its first Omega Satellite in 2026, and have over 100 satellites in orbit by 2030. Astranis also developed UtilitySat, a multi-mission commercial satellite capable of performing simultaneous connectivity missions and relocating to different orbital positions as needed.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, Astranis’ commercial customers for MicroGEO communications satellites spanned the US, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, and Thailand. Astranis also partnered with satellite services providers and telecommunications providers, including 1) Orbits Corp to provide connections to up to 5,000 rural locations in the Philippines (November 2023); 2) Apco Networks (AiTelecom) to launch two MicroGEO satellites in Mexico (September 2023); and 3) Anuvu to provide broadband services in Alaska (May 2023).

Astranis

Sateliot is a Barcelona-based company developing a constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) nanosatellites to provide global 5G NB-IoT (narrowband Internet-of-Things) connectivity. The company aims to offer seamless IoT coverage worldwide, especially in remote areas lacking terrestrial networks. Its technology allows standard NB-IoT devices to connect directly to its satellites without requiring specialized hardware.&nbsp;As of August 2024, Sateliot launched six satellites, including four deployed on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. These satellites, measuring 20 x 10 x 35 cm and weighing 10 kg, orbit at an altitude of ~600 km and have an expected lifespan of five years. As of November 2024, the company planned to expand its constellation to over 100 satellites by 2028. Sateliot's technology utilizes the 3GPP 5G NB-IoT NTN (non-terrestrial network) standard, allowing seamless integration between terrestrial and satellite networks. The company claims to be the first LEO satellite connectivity provider to work under the 3GPP standard. Sateliot uses a patented two-step authentication method called “Store &amp; Forward,” which stores data when a satellite is not in a position to connect with a ground station and forwards it when it enters the coverage range.Sateliot's business model involves partnering with mobile network operators to offer IoT connectivity as a roaming service. It targets agriculture, logistics, ocean logistics, livestock, infrastructure, energy, wearables, mining, military, and oil and gas industries.&nbsp;&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of June 2024, the company had secured EUR 200 million in recurring revenue contracts from 400 clients in 50 countries. Sateliot’s mobile network operator partners included Telefonica, AWS, GSMA, Comfone, and GCF. Sateliot also partnered with t42, a freight software and analytics company, to deploy thousands of 5G-IoT sensors in shipping containers across more than 50 countries (November 2023). The company also partnered with Sensefinity to launch global 5G-IoT satellite connectivity to facilitate data transmission from smart containers for Maritime shipping (January 2023).&nbsp;Sateliot has partnerships with 1) SpaceX for a satellite launch (May 2024), 2) Exolaunch for launch services (May 2024), and Leaf Space for ground station support (June 2024).&nbsp;&nbsp;

Sateliot

Omnispace is a global communications company that has developed a non-geostationary satellite (NGSO) system to provide direct-to-device connectivity and Internet-of-Things (IoT) services worldwide. Omnispace's technology utilizes the S-band spectrum in the 1,980–2,010 MHz and 2,170–2,200 MHz ranges, which aligns with the 3GPP 5G NTN (non-terrestrial network) band n256 specifications. Omnispace's network is designed to provide ubiquitous 5G connectivity, enabling users to transition between satellite and terrestrial networks without needing multiple devices.Omnispace has secured regulatory approvals to provide services in multiple countries across Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including Brazil. As of May 2024, the company operated a few experimental satellites in low- and medium-Earth orbit and planned to deploy over 600 low-Earth orbit satellites, with initial services expected to begin in 2026 using 300 satellites.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of November 2024, Omnispace’s mobile network operator partnerships included 1) Smart Communications in the Philippines to explore use cases such as 5G connectivity in remote areas and disaster relief (August 2022) and 2) MTN Group, Africa's largest mobile network operator, to develop and deploy satellite IoT and 5G services across MTN's markets in Africa and the Middle East (March 2024).&nbsp;Omnispace also collaborated with 1) Microsoft to deliver a 5G NTN network using its Azure services (April 2022) and 2) Ligado Networks to combine their licensed mobile satellite services spectrum to create a portfolio of licensed satellite spectrum for global direct-to-device connectivity (February 2023).&nbsp;&nbsp;

Omnispace

Skyloom Global Corp. is a telecommunications company based in Broomfield, Colorado, focused on developing and deploying space-based telecommunication infrastructure for global data transport services. The company specializes in optical communication technologies, which enable high-bandwidth connections for satellite-to-satellite, satellite-to-Earth, and Earth-to-satellite transmissions.&nbsp;Skyloom's offerings include&nbsp;<ol><li>V’ger: Optical communications terminals (OCTs) that support high bandwidth connections from low-Earth orbit (LEO), LEO-ground to LEO-airborne, and LEO-maritime. It supports a speed of 1–10 Gbps. Skyloom's OCT technology reportedly can transmit 10–100x more data back to Earth than the current radio frequency (RF) systems.</li><li>Scotty: A user terminal for LEO satellites accessing Skyloom's network, which enables multi-Gbps data transfer from LEO to on-the-cloud. It connects satellites in LEO to multi-user optical relay satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO), supporting LEO-GEO links to up to 20 Gbps.&nbsp;</li><li>Uhura: A geostationary optical relay satellite for GEO-LEO and GEO-ground data transfer, which supports a speed of up to 20 Gbps for LEO to GEO OCT and GEO-ground OCT. Skyloom planned to deploy the first node for Asia-Pacific coverage in Q4 2024 (November 2024).&nbsp;</li><li>Kirk: An optical ground station that can be installed at a traditional ground station, co-located with existing or planned data centers.</li></ol>In September 2023, the company achieved the AS 9100 Certification for product assurance manufacturing. In September 2024, it passed the US Space Development Agency's (SDA’s) interoperability qualification process, confirming the interoperability of its optical terminals with SDA's ground interface and other optical terminal suppliers.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsSkyloom established several key partnerships and customer relationships in the aerospace and satellite communications sectors, including<ol><li>NEC Corporation to develop high-speed optical communication equipment for multi-orbit satellite networks (March 2024)&nbsp;</li><li>Satellogic, a company that offers sub-meter Earth observation data and satellite technology to integrate Skyloom's OCT onto Satellogic satellites to test new methods of high-resolution Earth observation data delivery (September 2023)</li><li>Axiom Space to integrate and showcase high data-rate optical inter-satellite links on the first module of a commercial space station (December 2023)</li><li>Space Compass, a joint venture between NTT and SKY Perfect JSAT, to develop GEO-based optical communications network infrastructure (September 2022).</li></ol>In October 2024, Skyloom announced a joint venture with Officina Stellare, an Italian space technology company, to establish Skyloom Europe. This venture aimed to create a high-throughput production plant in Italy for manufacturing optical communication terminals, focusing on advanced encryption techniques and quantum coding for airborne and space applications.&nbsp;

Skyloom Global

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an aviation and aerospace technology company founded by Elon Musk. The primary activities of SpaceX include the design, manufacturing, and launch of advanced rockets and spacecrafts; Rideshare; the operation of its Starlink satellite constellation; and human spaceflight.SpaceX’s Starlink operates a constellation of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites providing global broadband internet services. It provides connectivity for residential, business, and mobile use, including options for fixed site, land mobility, aviation, and maritime connectivity. As of October 2024, Starlink had approximately 6,000 satellites in orbit, with plans to have as many as 42,000 satellites in its constellation.Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;SpaceX has partnered with several companies, including<ul><li>T-Mobile to provide cell service coverage in rural and underserved areas of the US through SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation. Under the partnership in January 2024, SpaceX launched its first six Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities.</li><li>SpaceX also partnered with Comcast Business to deliver high-speed internet connectivity to enterprise customers in underserved regions without access to fiber networks (June 2024).</li><li>SES, a satellite network provider, to deliver a combined medium-Earth orbit (MEO)-LEO satellite connectivity service for cruise ships (September 2023)</li><li>Ando Hazama and University of Tokyo to provide internet connectivity for local 5G networks in remote mountainous areas (October 2023)</li><li>John Deere to provide satellite communications service for farmers facing rural connectivity challenges (January 2024)</li><li>United Airlines (September 2024), Air France (September 2024), and airBaltic (April 2024) to provide in-flight connectivity.&nbsp;</li></ul>

SpaceX

Companies that offer 5G/6G connectivity solutions for enterprises to use in private telecommunications, using cell towers, base stations and other terrestrial infrastructure

Companies that offer 5G/6G connectivity solutions for enterprises for use in private telecommunications, using satellites and other space-based equipment

Companies that develop hardware and equipment for mobile service providers and enterprises to build, maintain and optimize private 5G/6G networks, including switches, antennas, microchips, and routers

Companies that develop next-generation software solutions for mobile service providers and enterprises to manage and optimize cloud infrastructure and network services

Provides 5G/6G telecom technologies to offer lower latency and increased capacity and coverage

Some network optimization companies offer a single network to connect users and IoT devices globally

Earth-based hardware and telecom software companies adopt AI/ML for design and RAN automation

AccelerComm

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