NVM Private Equity has invested £1.5 million of growth capital into Newcastle based hiPSC company Newcells Biotech alongside existing investors Northstar Ventures, who have provided a further £500k bringing the total round to £2 million.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered at the world-renowned International Centre for Life in Newcastle (an incubator space for young and established biotechnology companies) Newcells is a successful, early-stage, life-sciences spinout from Newcastle University, which is leading the way in the development of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSCs) for efficacy and toxicity testing in the drug development sector.

Livingbridge has sold its stake in Portman Dental Care, the fastest growing, privately led dental group in the UK.

Founded in 2009 by Sam Waley-Cohen, Livingbridge invested in Portman in 2014. Since then, this investment has helped grow the group from 27 to over 75 practices across the UK, building a strong reputation for modern facilities, patient friendly appointments, friendly and caring staff and the highest clinical standards.

A Hull healthtech start-up which has developed an award-winning device to enhance mental wellbeing has secured a £200,000 investment from NPIF-Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia Fund Managers and is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

Moodbeam’s wearable device allows users to log their mood and monitor their emotional wellbeing – or that of their children, students, patients or employees. The device, which links to an online and mobile platform, gives insights into how moods change over time, showing patterns and trends that can support positive change. The funding will allow the business to put the device into production.

Jupiter Diagnostics seeks £250k for a 4.5% stake in the company.  For more information please click on the image below. 

Pfizer Ltd has announced that Medopad, Perfect Ward and Inhealthcare have been selected to be part of the Pfizer Healthcare Hub: London.

uMotif, the data capture company putting patients at the centre of clinical research, has raised £2.4 million in its latest funding round led by Albion Capital, the leading independent investment manager, along with several angel investors.

Maven Capital Partners has completed a £1.6 million investment in BioAscent Discovery Limited, an integrated drug discovery services business. The funding will enable BioAscent to significantly expand its service offering, adding complementary chemistry and biology services and capitalise on the growing trend towards the outsourcing of drug discovery activities. The funding will support the creation of 10 new jobs, including in highly skilled scientific positions, and fund additional laboratory space.

AdoRx Therapeutics, a UK based drug discovery company focused on the identification of new cancer therapeutics, today announced that it has closed an initial $10 million investment round financed by Epidarex Capital and CRT Pioneer Fund (‘CPF’).

Micrima, the Bristol-based breast imaging company, has raised £4.4 million in additional equity funding led by Technology Venture Partners, The Angel CoFund (ACF), and Venture Founders - plus a group of returning and new individual investors - bringing the total amount raised to £10.7m.

Roy Johnson, Micrima’s Executive Chairman, said, “I am very happy to announce the completion of our latest funding round, which provides us with the capital we need to move our initial MARIA product into full commercial launch and follow this swiftly with the enhanced functionality that the system is capable of achieving. The market has been prepared over the past 18 months through the publication of our historical clinical trial data, and attendance at numerous congresses and trade shows to showcase our breakthrough technology. As a result, we have many influential clinicians and partners anticipating the launch of MARIA later this year. We look forward to putting the product we have worked so hard to create into their hands for the first time.”

Healios, the digital therapy company for mental health, has raised £2.2m ($3m) in its latest funding round, led by investors Albion Capital and Spice Capital.

Catalan biomedical companies attracted €102 million in investment in 2017, with €3.4 million per operation, on average. This will allow them to push forward in the development of drugs and innovative medical technology, as reflected in the Study on investment in the Biomedical industry in Catalonia: Achievements and future challenges presented today by CataloniaBio & HealthTech and EY  in Barcelona. The event drew a crowd of more than 60 entrepreneurs, investors and professionals from the sector.

Zebra Medical Vision, the leading machine and deep learning startup, is announcing today it has raised $30M in C round funding, bringing the total investment in the company to $50M. In addition, the company is unveiling its Textray chest x-ray research today, the most comprehensive AI research conducted on chest x-rays to date, which provides a glimpse into a future automated chest x-ray analysis product being developed by the company.