Downing Ventures' Healthcare team argues that now is a great time to invest in the sector.

Continulus, the Glasgow-headquartered online video-learning platform for health professionals, has secured £0.5m of equity investment from a consortium of UK investors.  The funds will be deployed to strengthen the Continulus management team, as well as enhancing the company’s technological capacity to permit its continuing expansion and collaboration with some of the world’s most highly respected medical organisations.

BGF has exited its investment in CHS Healthcare, a provider of outsourced services for the NHS and social care, following its acquisition by Acacium Group (formerly known as Independent Clinical Services), a specialised healthcare solutions partner with its head office in London.

BGF invested £10 million of growth capital into CHS in 2018, which helped the business expand its infrastructure and operations, supporting the provision of services to the NHS and local authorities nationwide. The investment also enabled CHS to bolster its senior management team and pursue an acquisitive growth strategy. 

Birmingham-based Linear Diagnostics has secured £800,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) and other investors in the company’s second round of funding.  The finance will facilitate the ongoing development of the company’s high-speed platform technology for point of care diagnostics. The funding package includes backing from MEIF Equity Finance, managed by venture capital firm Midven, the University of Birmingham and the UKI2S Fund. The UK Future Fund matched the investment from the initial investors. 

Wellbeing startup Psychological Technologies (PSYT) has raised over £1.7m, supported by Angel Investment Network, the world’s largest online angel investment platform. The startup turns the advice of the world's leading self-development authors into digital, action-based summaries to help individuals create real change.  Founded by the former Head of Research at Headspace Nick Begley, PSYT launched an MVP last year based on a single book called “The Anxiety Solution” to test the proposition. The MVP was featured by Apple in the “Best Apps of March 2020” and has an average rating of 4.9*. The raise took eight weeks with the funding being used to bulk out the full-time team, develop more content and launch a multibook platform.

Drug discovery and development company, Blueberry Therapeutics, is announcing a £3.6m extension to its previously successful £10.8m Series B fundraising.

Japanese investor, Medical Incubator Japan (MIJ), and a private syndicate of US Board Certified Dermatologists - led by Dr Omar Ibrahimi of the Connecticut Skin Institute - have invested £3.1m and £500k, respectively.

BGF has exitedf its investment in Arcinova, the U.K.-based multiservice contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). Following a period of growth and expansion, the business has been acquired by Quotient Sciences, the drug development and manufacturing accelerator, backed by the global private equity firm Permira.

Pembroke VCT, the venture capital trust focused on building the brands of tomorrow, has made an initial investment of £1 million into Credentially, the platform that automates healthcare hiring, onboarding and compliance. During the pandemic, the company has worked with the NHS to speed up the registration of healthcare professionals.

Credentially was launched in 2016 by founders Kit Latham, a former A&E doctor and Artem Stalpouski, a software engineer. They combined their experience and expertise to address the lengthy hiring processes, disjointed onboarding efforts and fragmented compliance reporting that healthcare providers currently experience.

BGF, the UK’s most active investor in growth economy businesses, has successfully exited its investment in Renal Services, an independent provider of dialysis services, after it was acquired by DaVita UK Limited, a DaVita International Group Company.

London-based Vamstar, which is creating the world's first AI powered B2B healthcare marketplace, has completed a $1.7 million seed funding led by btov with participation from Antler and Begin Capital.

The Imperial College Innovation Fund (ICIF), an early-stage investment fund launched at Imperial in early 2020 and managed by Parkwalk Advisors to invest in early-stage, high-growth, knowledge-intensive companies, has completed its first investment of £205,000 into Charco Neurotech. 

The team of designers, doctors, engineers and scientists at Charco Neurotech are developing a non-invasive vibrating device called CUE1 to help manage Parkinson’s symptoms. The investment from ICIF is part of a £500,000 seed round from investors, including Amadeus Capital Partners, Crista Galli, RCA and Oxbridge Angels. The investment will be used to launch CUE 1 in the UK/EU market in early 2021. 

Pembroke VCT, the venture capital trust focused on building the brands of tomorrow, has made an initial investment of £1 million into Credentially, the platform that automates healthcare hiring, onboarding and compliance. During the pandemic, the company has worked with the NHS to speed up the registration of healthcare professionals.