The limited partnership will commit £200,000 to the spin-out, which was formed out of the university’s School of Engineering and has developed a generator for use in large wind turbines.

The backing follows an equity investment of £2 million in the business by Dutch venture capital fund ET Venture Partners and Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Co-investment Fund in December last year. Global gearing company David Brown also has signed an industrial partnership with NGenTec.

Currently led by acting CEO Derek Shepherd, who is also the company’s co-founder and non-executive chairman, NGenTec was incorporated in 2009 and aims to become a supplier of generators and associated engineering services to wind turbine manufacturers. Co-founders Dr Markus Mueller and Dr Alasdair McDonald pioneered the venture’s technology while at the university.

Launched last month, Old College Capital will make venture investments of £200,000 into companies as they grow and develop. Investments will be made as part of large deals involving venture capital funds or professional investors with three to five investments expected each year, according to a statement from the university.

Hamish Mair, head of private equity at F&C Investments and a former student of the university, will chair Old College Capital’s investment committee.

Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, principal of the university, comments, ‘This is a very significant step for the university as we seek to build on the highly successful commercialisation of our research activity. We are proud of the wider economic impact that we have as an institution and we are now in a even stronger position to increase that impact.’