Angle PLC

A CIPA case study  

From its international head office on Surrey University’s research park in Guildford, a team of 21st century prospectors are mining ideas and know-how from universities and companies around the world and polishing them up for successful commercial exploitation.

The UK’s scientists and engineers are renowned for their brilliance in coming up with world-beating ideas, but often lacking lustre when it comes to their commercial exploitation. Angle’s management team has turned this familiar picture on its head. Its focus is entirely on astute commercial management and it will dig out good ideas from wherever it can find them. As a result, useful and valuable products are reaching consumers, rather than struggling to get out of the laboratory. The inventors get their share of the rewards and can carry on researching and developing other new products and technologies.

Technologies that Angle has brought out of the laboratory and into – or heading towards – the marketplace include:

• Novocellus: a test for use in IVF treatment, to allow clinical embryologists to test embryo viability before transfer back to the mother. The technology was developed at the University of York.
• Geomerics: a patented system of geometric algebra, developed at Cambridge University, that makes computer games faster and more realistic.
• Provexis: a range of natural foods and drinks, including the fruit juice Sirco™ with a patented bioactive extract of tomato that reduces the risk of thrombosis, heart attack and stroke. Orginally developed at the Rowett Institute, Aberdeen (Scotland).
• Acolyte Biomedica: a diagnostic test, BacLite ®, initially developed at the former government research laboratory at Porton Down, that can confirm MRSA infection much more rapidly, allowing early and effective treatment.
• Synature:a new approach to target marketing and consumer profiling, based on psychological profiling techniques online, for increased profitability and customer loyalty. Developed by a team in Cambridge.
• Aberro: a computer software tool, developed by Dr Bill Rogers of the University of Texas, that automates software testing, increases productivity and accelerates the speed at which new products can be brought to market.

UK Chief Executive Stephen Bates describes Angle’s business as ‘IP-centric’ – that is to say, it revolves around intellectual property, wherever it originates from, rather than being based on developing the company’s own technology.

It’s an unusual model, but one that works well. The growth in Angle’s capital value comes from its success in stock market flotations or trade sales of ventures it has started up and invested in. Most recent of these is Provexis, which specialises in developing and marketing ‘nutraceuticals’ – foods that have a proven beneficial effect on human health. The flotation of Provexis in June
2005 generated a capital gain of £2m for Angle and, since flotation, Provexis has continued to improve strongly, giving rise to further gains.

Angle’s revenue stream comes from its consulting business, which also showed strong growth in 2005, with a 44% increase over the previous to year, to £4.13m.

Andrew Newland, the former head of KPMG’s innovation practice, founded Angle in 1994. His initial focus was on developing the consulting business, with some early successes in advising companies and government agencies on the successful commercialisation of technology.

Involvement with spin-out businesses from academic research departments soon followed, and Angle now counts quite a few universities among its IP partners, including the University of Virginia (USA), University of Bristol, University of Cambridge and the University of York.

Linked to Angle’s consulting business is its management arm. Angle takes on the management of research and science parks, incubators and enterprise hubs, on behalf of universities and economic development agencies. Besides its UK contracts, such as Mansfield District Council’s innovation centre, the company is now managing research parks in the US and Qatar

Broadening IP portfolio

The UK government’s Department of Trade & Industry recognised Angle’s potential in 1999, with a grant of £400,000 to help fund the early development of Angle’s biotech ventures.

Although biotech continues to be important for the company, its IP interests now include IT and electronics, materials technology, optronics, nanotechnology, health foods and drinks, and software testing.

Many of Angle’s senior managers are former research scientists. They have a strong network of scientists and developers working in universities and companies. The Angle team’s skill lies in spotting new technologies that can fill a market need and that can be commercialised quickly. Often, new technologies can be identified when someone files a patent application.

Angle acquires rights to new technology by arranging for an assignment of patent rights, taking a licence or, occasionally, acquiring the information contained in a ‘trade secret.’ This last option, according to Stephen Bence, Angle’s Director of New Ventures, can sometimes be more valuable and effective than a patent. ‘Patents are often the best solution to protecting IP rights’, he explains, ‘but not always so. Patent rights can be expensive to obtain and maintain, especially if you want international protection. And, of course, patents expire. If Coca-Cola had patented their formula when they invented the world’s best-selling soft drink, they wouldn’t have a business now. The formula would have been published as part of the patent application and, as soon as the patent expired, any other drinks company would have been free to copy it.’

For a company that doesn’t have any inventions of its own, Angle invests quite a lot of money on patent research and protection. When Stephen Bence needs an expert opinion on the strength of a patent, or advice on how best to maintain patent protection, he normally turns to a specialist firm of patent attorneys, Haseltine Lake. ‘We tend to use the same firm of patent attorneys most of the time, because they know our business and can give us more than just a legalistic opinion,’ explains Stephen Bence. ‘Our main reason for seeking an outside professional view is that we want to minimise the risk involved in making an investment in any new technology venture.

Successful exits suggest sound judgement

Angle’s track record in investing in new technology-based ventures suggests that when it comes to assessing risks, the management team have sound judgement. It started in 1999, with Angle’s first investments in biotechnology: NeuroTargets, Provexis and Acolyte Biomedica were all set up under Angle’s Progeny ® umbrella.  Angle’s first exit came in 2004, with the sale of Exago for £4.9m, realising £2.4m for Angle’s 49.9% stake and a profit of £2.1m.

Since then, Angle has continued to plough its capital back into more new ventures, launching Novocellus in 2004, Aberro, Synature and Geomerics in 2005 – the same year that it sold its interest in Provexis – and, in 2006, Innomatica and Parsortix. One flotation particularly close to the management team’s hearts was that of Angle itself, when it listed on London’s second market, AIM, in 2004, raising £9m for further development and expansion. This has included opening new offices in Charlottesville, Virginia (US) where US Chief Executive Gary Evans is now based and, on the back of a new £6m contract to manage a Science and Technology Park in Qatar.

For more information, contact:

Angle Technologies

Stephen Bates, Angle: 01483 295830

Peter Prowse, Waylines Consulting: 01372 271234,

Ted Blake, CIPA: 020 7405 9450

John Cheyne, Haseltine Lake: 0117 910 3200