We work closely with our partner laboratories to identify commercial opportunities arising from their world-class research and we are excited to announce investments in three promising university spinouts and follow-on funding for a leading life science firm.
The UCL Technology Fund and UKI2S, alongside support from Innovate UK, have invested in UCL spinout company Glialign Ltd, a company that is developing a novel cell therapy for peripheral nerve repair. Glialign has developed an allogeneic (‘off-the-shelf’) cell therapy for the repair of peripheral nerve injury called Engineered Neural Tissue (‘EngNT’). EngNT will provide a living nerve-growth guide that mimics nerve structure, and has the potential to enable both neural regeneration and functional recovery. The new funding enables crucial in vivo experiments to demonstrate the efficacy of the improved construct; success on these studies will be a key step towards bringing this innovative cell therapy to the clinic.
Laser-sensing technology firm MIRICO has announced it has secured £3.5 million investment and appointed Dr Linda Bell as CEO. The equity investment was led by Longwall Ventures ECF along with STFC Innovation Ltd, UKI2S) and new investor Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund.
Originally spun out of the RAL Space Division of the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in late 2015, MIRICO produces equipment for high-precision sensing of gases using next-generation laser techniques. Tighter regulation on air quality and global climate change is driving a growing demand for more accurate, reliable and versatile technology. The funding enables MIRICO to advance its product development and build a manufacturing capability to serve its world-wide customer base. Learn more about MIRICO at http://mirico.co.uk/.
Atelerix, an innovative cell encapsulation technology spin-out from the University of Newcastle, just closed a round of funding to take its cell storage products to market. Atelerix’s technology is used to assist companies that sell cells and tissues, use cells and tissues to discover and test new drugs and develop cell therapies, and companies that store stem cells. The investment round was led by UKI2S and new investors including Newable Private Investing and Oxford Technology Management. For more information, please visit www.atelerix.co.uk.
UKI2S has also further invested in life sciences firm Eagle Genomics, which has raised $1 million within three weeks of opening its latest investment round. The company focuses on genomic data and microbiome analysis has acquired 11 enterprise customers since its last funding round and was one of only 12 companies to be accepted onto the latest cohort of the Microsoft Scale-Up Program, exposing it to the global Microsoft customer network.
Eagle has also appointed Executive Chairman Anthony Finbow to Chief Executive and founder Abel Ureta-Vidal has moved to the post of Chief Product Officer. The change in management indicates a new phase for Eagle Genomics as the organisation shapes for scale to meet customer demand. For more information, please visit https://www.eaglegenomics.com/.