Tekcapital: Leadership in High-Value Intellectual Property Strategies Global 2025

Tekcapital plc, founded by Dr. Clifford Gross in 2014 following research he conducted during an Oxford MBA programme, was created with the mission of helping to unlock the vast commercial potential of university-developed intellectual property that often remains unutilised. The company identified that approximately 80 percent of academic discoveries never reach the market, representing a significant loss of valuable global intellectual capital. Tekcapital addressed this challenge by building the world’s most extensive specialised search engine, linked to more than 4,500 universities across 162 countries, enabling the identification of promising innovations. To help assess their viability, Tekcapital established a global science board of over 60 experts and acquired Invention Evaluator, an analytical service that assesses the market potential of new technologies, which it later enhanced with generative AI and spun out as a separate listed company (GENIP plc), which now supports over 250 universities and corporations worldwide including NASA and Hewlett-Packard. Recognising the opportunity to leverage its own methodologies, Tekcapital created and invested in five innovative portfolio companies founded on compelling intellectual property, four of which are already listed and a fifth which recently filed an S1, preparing it for public markets. From initial net assets of $1.7m in 2014, Tekcapital has grown to $77.4m in the first half of 2025, consistently achieving returns on invested capital of around 25 percent annually in a sector where 90 percent of start-ups fail and only one in 2,000 receive venture funding. Its model combines rigorous technology assessment, strategic intellectual property protection, and comprehensive support for entrepreneurial teams, demonstrating the effectiveness of its approach to bridging the gap between academia and market application. The Capital Finance International (CFI.co) Judging Panel congratulates Tekcapital on winning the 2025 Leadership in High-Value Intellectual Property Strategies Award (Global).