SomaServe Ltd, a pioneer in nanomedicines for crossing biological barriers has completed a highly successful, oversubscribed Series A funding of £2.1m.

The funding round was jointly led by Origin Capital and Meltwind, and had follow on investment from all existing investors including Abcam and o2H Ventures. The success of this funding round is testament to the progress made with collaborators in evaluating PolyNaut® for penetrating the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the launch by Abcam of PolyNaut®-Dye products.

Maven Equity Finance, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) and managed by Maven Capital Partners, has led a £2 million funding round for LCC (Liverpool Chirochem Limited), an international chemical technology business whose products form the building blocks to the research and development of new drugs. The NPIF - Maven Equity Fund invested £1 million, alongside the £1 million from the Government’s Future Fund.

Maxwellia, a business that is poised to transform the UK’s self-care market has secured a £3.2m investment in a funding round led by Praetura Ventures.

Maxwellia, which is based at Alderley Park in Cheshire, aims to give people easier and faster access to the treatments they need by converting prescription-only medicines to versions that can be bought in a pharmacy.

Following the initial investment in 2019, IW Capital has led the second round of funding to support the exciting development of this fast-growing business. Over the past year, Flarin has seen expansion through sales of Flarin Joint and Muscular Pain Relief into mass multiples such as Boots, Superdrug, Sainsbury, Morrisons as well as Amazon, Ocado and other online retailers.

QVentures has invested in Béa Fertility, bringing at-home fertility treatments to the UK. Healthcare start-up Béa Fertility has raised $1m to bring a pioneering at-home fertility treatment to the UK. QVentures joins the round led by Calm/Storm VC and which includes an innovation grant from the recent Innovate UK SMART competition.

Wysdom Dental Technologies has received £200,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, East & South East Midlands Debt Finance Fund, managed by Maven Capital Partners.

The Milton Keynes-based business plans to use the funding to invest in product development and launch its latest cloud-based software for dental practices in the UK.

Scottish bio-tech company, BioCaptiva, has developed a novel next generation “liquid biopsy” technology device that could revolutionise the early diagnosis and monitoring of difficult to detect cancers.  The University of Edinburgh spin-out has raised over £1m in seed funding from Edinburgh-based business angel investment syndicate, Archangels, and Scottish Enterprise, to help develop the technology.  To prepare the company for this next stage in its development, BioCaptiva has appointed Dr Frank Armstrong FRCPE as non-executive chairman and Dr Stephen Little as a non-executive director.

Baseimmune, the early-stage UK biotech startup, is combining big data and biological expertise to predict how viruses will change and identify ‘future-proof’ antigens that will form the crucial elements of the next generation of vaccines.  In order to further the development of its platform and start pre-clinical development in the lab, Baseimmune has secured a £685,000 investment, led by European university VC fund, Creator Fund, and includes Mike Watson, ex-president of Moderna's infectious disease spin-out with the support of Vaccitech and Oxford University. Maki VC and Rockmount Seed Investments also joined the round.

A University of Nottingham spin-out which has developed a rapid test that could be a ‘game changer’ in combatting tuberculosis (TB) in livestock has secured a £2.3m investment to help bring its product to market.  The funding for PBD Biotech has come from a consortium led by fund managers Mercia and the Foresight Group, which were both investing through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF); the University of Nottingham; the government’s Future Fund; and private investors including farmers and veterinary practices. 

Caristo Diagnostics, the medical imaging company, has completed a multi-million-pound investment round. The round was led by BGF, the UK’s most active growth economy investor, and existing investors including Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), Longwall Ventures and the Oxford Technology & Innovation Fund (OTIF).

The funding will be used to roll-out Caristo Diagnostic’s CaRi-Heart^®, a ground-breaking AI-based cardiovascular risk prediction technology, which has just received its CE mark accreditation and is available for use by doctors across the UK and Europe.

PhoreMost Ltd., the UK-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to ‘Drugging the Undruggable^®, disease targets, has completed an oversubscribed £33m ($46m) Series B investment round. The round was led by BGF, the UK’s most active growth economy investor, and included new investors XtalPi Inc., Astellas Venture Management, Trend Investment Group and o2h ventures. Existing investors Parkwalk Advisors, Morningside Ventures, and Jonathan Milner also contributed.

Oxford Medical Products (OMP) has raised £1.2M in seed investment to develop a safe and affordable weight loss capsule, which uses the same mechanism of action as a gastric balloon, but can be taken at home. The funding will be used to complete pre-clinical testing, upscale and outsource manufacturing and grow the team. The funding was led by Ada Ventures with Selvedge Venture alongside several angel investors including Dr Nick Edwards, a founder of the company, and Dr Jan Hruska, co-founder of Sophos.