How we fund commercial companies
This page provides:
- details of how we fund commercial companies to develop new health related technologies and products
- summaries of the terms that we fund commercial companies on
Most of our funding is awarded through grants to universities and not-for-profit research organisations.
However, we are also interested in partnering with commercial companies to develop new products and technologies that align with our strategic goals, particularly in areas such as infectious disease and mental health.
When we fund a commercial company to develop a product, we do this through a programme-related investment.
A programme-related investment allows charities to advance their mission in situations where grant funding is not allowed under charity law. For example, we cannot award grant-funding in situations where our funding could lead to an excessive private benefit.
For Wellcome, programme-related investments are beneficial because they:
- give us flexibility in who we can partner with and the types of activity we can support
- enable us to fund projects involving technologies or products that are intended for commercialisation by commercial companies
- ensure that when a company funded by Wellcome succeeds in bringing a product to market, it can generate an appropriate commercial profit while also providing Wellcome with a fair and reasonable return to reinvest into our mission
When funding through a programme-related investment, we use either a convertible loan or a revenue share mechanism.
We developed the terms of our programme-related investments to enable commercial companies to progress product development in line with their commercial objectives while at the same time ensuring that the partnership supports Wellcome’s mission and complies with UK charity law and the requirements of our regulator, the Charity Commission.
Summaries of our convertible loan agreement and revenue sharing agreement
Before applying, commercial companies should review the summaries of our terms below and satisfy themselves that they are acceptable. These are intended to be high-level summaries for information only. A draft copy of the relevant full agreement will be sent to successful applicants.
We can answer questions (which should be raised as early as possible), but we do not engage in lengthy negotiations on the commercial terms of programme-related investments. If you cannot accept these terms, it is likely Wellcome is not the right partner for you and you should instead seek funding from alternative sources, such as venture capital.
Regardless of how commercial companies are funded, we expect them to report to us on their progress and subsequently on the impact the funded technology achieves. This is separate to our annual reporting process for universities and not-for-profit organisations, which does not apply to programme-related investment-funded projects.
Contact us
Contact our Innovation and Access team if you have any questions.