Mentor Graphics’ start-up support company Cre8Ventures has donated £2.5m of electronics design software to the Computer Architecture Research Group at Imperial College.

The donation includes software for a range of design and verification from systems-on-chip to printed circuit boards to embedded software.

The firm will also work with the computer architecture group to identify projects for possible start-up ventures in September, according to Oskar Mencer, EPSRC Advanced Fellow and head of the group.

“It is very exciting establishing a relationship with Cre8Ventures because it gives us access to their network,” said Mencer.

Although Carson Bradbury, European director of Cre8Ventures, refused to reveal who exactly was in Cre8Ventures network, he said there were just a handful of VCs firms in Europe suitable for supporting very early stage fabless semiconductor start-ups. He included Pond Venture Partners in that handful.

He also insisted Cre8Ventures was not trying to tie university spin-outs into any arrangments with Mentor. “We are not trying to kill off the baby before it is born by saying we have to make sure no one besides ourselves will get any advantage out of this.

“We are saying we want to generate value by helping start-ups to come into being and we will worry about who gets which part afterwards. It is more like the Silicon Valley style of encouraging start-ups,” said Bradbury.

“We will be focused on the success of a firm and they will not have to take a Mentor Graphics environment every time if it is not what they need,” added Bradbury.