Cambridge’s Innovation Hub and Oman’s Terminal 11 open a two-way bridge for startups 

Agreement signed during the Sultan’s State Visit links Omani founders to Cambridge investors – and Cambridge companies to Gulf markets

Innovate Cambridge and Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) have signed a three-year trilateral strategic collaboration agreement with Terminal 11, Oman’s national innovation platform and an investment of the Oman Investment Authority (OIA) through Future Fund Oman, creating a two-way bridge between the two countries’ innovation ecosystems. The agreement was signed on 23 October at Harwell Science and Innovation Park, Oxfordshire, on the occasion of the State Visit of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik to the United Kingdom.

The partnership will be delivered through the Cambridge Innovation Hub, a new national platform that connects high-growth science and technology companies from the UK’s leading research universities with investors, industry partners and specialist expertise. It builds on the OIA’s existing investment in CIC.

Initially, the programme will support up to five Omani startups to visit Cambridge, where they will engage with venture capital investors, founders, sector specialists and university researchers, take part in events across Cambridge, and access CIC’s Entrepreneurs in Residence programme – helping them validate product-market fit and prepare for entry into UK and European markets.

In return, Terminal 11 will facilitate introductions for Cambridge companies to government entities, leading corporates and investors across Oman and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, including pilot opportunities and innovation challenges aligned with Oman Vision 2040.

The agreement also provides a framework for joint events, investment networking and knowledge exchange in research and technology commercialisation. A joint Steering Committee will oversee work plans, activities and performance indicators.

The agreement is the latest step in the Hub’s strategy to link Cambridge with leading innovation hubs worldwide, including Station F in Paris, of which Terminal 11 is already a member. Alongside national partnerships such as Cambridge x Manchester, it gives international partners a single, joined-up route into the UK’s leading innovation clusters.

Image:
Seated, left to right: Dr Kathryn Chapman, CEO, Innovate Cambridge; Al Mu’tasim Al Sariri, Chairman, Terminal 11; Humphrey Battcock, Board Member, CIC.  Standing, left to right: Mustafa Salman, Deputy chairman of Banking & Finance committee at Oman Chamber of Commerce and industry (OCCI); Pascal Levensohn, Chairman, Cambridge Innovation Hub Global Advisory Board, and Fellow of Cambridge Judge Business School; His Excellency Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi, Chairman of the Oman Tax Authority and Head of the Omani Delegation; Dr Liane Saunders CMG, His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman; Riyad Daud, Member of the Cambridge Innovation Hub Global Advisory Board and Trustee of the British-Omani Society; Dominic Lyons, Director of Trade, British Embassy Muscat.