Vortex Biotech Holdings develops the VTX‑1 automated liquid‑biopsy instrument and a “no touch” microfluidic chip technology to capture viable, intact circulating tumour cells (CTCs). The VTX‑1 is placed in leading university and research centres (UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Ghent, University of Maryland, EPFL) and the business generates recurring revenues from disposable cartridges. Vortex has grown commercial interest from pharma and biotech and has developed several workflow integrations with third‑party instruments to expand commercialisation opportunities. The company has benefited from c.$38.5 million in historical investments and reached first sales after prior c.$30m of investment; EMV Capital led turnaround work including board restructuring and advising on c.£3.5m of debt facilities. Following a restructure the US and UK businesses are held by a UK holding company while maintaining Bay Area operations, and the group secured short‑term financing of £300,000 equity plus a £2.0m loan facility. Vortex plans to execute a transformative fundraising to exploit the growing liquid biopsy market and has appointed Paul Jones as CEO to drive growth and commercialisation. Vortex Biosciences offers the VTX‑1, a fully automated benchtop instrument that isolates highly purified, intact circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from a standard 8 ml blood tube in about one hour. The VTX‑1 enriches CTCs via microvortices and delivers them into various collection formats for downstream fluorescence, genomics, cell culture, PDOX, single‑cell analysis and staining. The processed blood tube can also preserve ctDNA for downstream NGS analysis. The company is led by CEO Robert Englert and is a spin‑out from UCLA’s Microfluidic Biotechnology Laboratory, founded by Dini Di Carlo, PhD and Elodie Sollier, PhD. Vortex says it will use recent proceeds to accelerate its development efforts.

Total raised

$3M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Aug 2022