The £30 million North West Fund for Biomedical sits under the umbrella of the North West Fund, a substantial evergreen investment fund established to provide debt and equity funding (from £25,000 to £2 million) to small and medium sized enterprises based in, or relocating to, the North West of England, and focuses on providing a flexible equity package for growth oriented businesses operating within the biomedical sector, including companies involved in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, healthcare technologies and medical devices.
The latest round of investments will assist:
- Bioxydyn, a provider of ground breaking medical imaging applications and imaging CRO services.
- Rapid Rhythm, MedTECH company developing products to aid the adoption of electrocardiogram (ECG) testing in Primary Care, Acute and Hyper-acute Care.
- Cytox, a diagnostic company developing tests to identify individuals at risk of cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
- Albert Medical Devices, developer of the world’s first intelligent easy-to-use, high quality catheter bag to improve patient care and quality of life.
- Videregen, a specialist company developing the world’s first commercially available organ replacement product’s to address the chronic shortage of organs for transplantation.
- Alchemy Pharmatech, which provides unit-dose, needle-free intranasal delivery of dry powders via its innovative device.
- Evgen, a clinical stage drug development company.
- Incanthera, an oncology company developing technologies that target cancerous tumours.
The Mills & Reeve venture capital team is nationally renowned for its specialist experience and expertise in advising and assisting on complex syndicated investments in early-stage and developing high-tech businesses. Led by corporate finance partner, Zickie Lim, the team has been working closely with the Fund and its manager, SPARK Impact, since its launch in 2011.
Andrew Round, Investment Director at SPARK Impact, said: “we’re delighted to have helped these innovative Life Science and Biomedical companies progress their development of their ground breaking products. Mills & Reeve’s in-depth knowledge of venture capital investments coupled with their commercial and pragmatic approach were absolutely vital to ensuring this latest round of investments proceeded smoothly and often within tight timeframes.”
Corporate finance associate, Pippa Pearce, who advised the Fund on these latest transactions commented: “it’s been a real pleasure to work with the SPARK Impact team on these latest investments. The Fund is doing great work in closing the funding gap experienced by SMEs in the North West and we’re thrilled to have been able to help facilitate this through our strong expertise and track record in this field.”
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