Hostplus and TelstraSuper-backed IP Group taps universities on cleantech renewables

A British-listed investment company is making a significant move into renewables technologies in partnership with top Australian universities.

IP Group’s Australian head Michael Molinari. Picture: Annette Dew

A British-listed investment company backed by industry fund giant Hostplus, TelstraSuper and the Singapore government’s investment fund Temasek is making a significant move into renewables technologies as it works to foster stronger ties between corporate Australia and academia.

IP Group, which has been investing in cutting-edge university research in Britain and the US, is investing $200m in Australia through an exclusive deal with the Group of Eight universities to help commercialise research.

Michael Molinari, the head of IP Group in Australia who boasts an Oxford doctorate in biomedical engineering, said a focus for the year ahead would be so-called “cleantech” which has been a priority of IP Group in Britain.

He said that in Britain the firm had built up a portfolio of interesting technologies and assets that would be central to the ongoing decarbonisation of the economy and was now looking to do the same in Australia.

“We are at a real tipping point for the large scale adoption of renewable technology, not just in energy generation but in terms of all industry. The next decade or two will see a continuation of the fundamental shift toward electrification of industry,’’ Mr Molinari said.

“That goes from renewable energy generation technology to the hydrogen economy and how those renewable electrons are going to transform the way we do things from green steel to electric cars. The policies of the new Biden administration in America are really going to ignite the space. We are going to see innovation happening at a rapid pace.”

IP Group is funding the investments in Australian research with $35m from TelstraSuper, as well as contributions from Temasek and British fund M&G.

“Here in Australia we are part of IP Group globally. We have a broad range of global institutional shareholders. In Australia we are supported by Telstra Super and also the $100m IP Australia HostPlus innovation fund, which have been visionary in their support of this space in Australia,” Mr Molinari said.

The IP Group Hostplus Innovation Fund, launched in 2018, is investing alongside IP Group in its leading portfolio companies in the healthcare, technology, cleantech and biotech sectors locally and globally.

IP Group has 140 portfolio companies globally worth $2bn. It differs from venture capital funds in that it has no exit deadline for an investment and offers support to early stage start-ups.

Last year, it announced its 11th investment in Australia, a company called CyAmast focused on cybersecurity solutions for Internet of Things devices.

Another investee company is RAGE Biotech, which brings together research from Monash University, the Perron Institute, the University of Western Australia and the Baker Institute to develop novel therapies for inflammatory lung diseases such as those caused by COVID-19.

“Rage is at an early stage of development, still at least five years away from getting a drug to market. But we think the approach they are taking has the potential to be extremely exciting and relevant to COVID and some of the after-effects to COVID we are seeing,’’ Mr Molinari said.

“It is a fantastic example of what can happen when we get researchers from multiple institutions working together.”

A British firm backed by IP Group called Nanopore is also being used for genomic sequencing of the coronavirus and has launched a clinical test for COVID which recently declared some promising results with the National Health Service.

“We have been really happy to see a number of the companies we have founded, invested in and supported globally playing a key role in response to COVID in different countries,’’ Mr Molinari said.

While he said all the firm’s Australian university partners had been impacted by the COVID-19 virus, there was a central role for the university sector to play in the longer-term economic response to COVID.

“How do we rebase the Australian economy and introduce the complexity and resilience into the economy that we need to that will drive recovery over the years to come? The universities and the expertise in universities will be ­really central to how Australia rebuilds its economy and how we grow from the pandemic,’’ Mr Molinari said.

He said there was a huge opportunity for the nation’s existing industrial base and companies to work more closely together with universities the help make academia the engine room of future industries.

“We need a thriving ecosystem and it needs participation and collaboration from the different parties within that,’’ he said.