SomaServe Ltd, a pioneer in nanomedicines for crossing biological barriers today announced that it has completed a highly successful, oversubscribed late seed funding of £2.1m. SomaServe has also secured further IP and global commercial rights to PolyNaut® platform technology (the bionic nanoparticle) from UCLB. The company now has exclusive PolyNaut® rights in all indications.
The funding round was jointly led by Meltwind and Origin Capital 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.
Dr Fran Crawford, CEO of SomaServe, said
We are continuing to execute our plan for PolyNaut® to enable product development programmes around the world with partners. It is clear that that there is much appetite for our technology which both penetrates biological barriers and targets specific cells. This funding will enable the company to expand into commercial facilities and upscale the number of projects and collaborations we work on.
David Ford of Arrowfield Capital, Chairman of SomaServe and lead investor for the 2019 funding round, added
We are delighted with the support from the new and existing investors, which attests to the headway we have made since spinning out of UCL. These funds will allow us to continue the growth and expansion of the business and to take advantage of the many opportunities we see to further the adoption of the PolyNaut® Technology.