Participated · Equity · Jul 2019

GeckoLabs provides a student engagement platform that enables universities to capture, manage and follow up with prospective students. The company is used by over 50% of the UK higher education market, including Cambridge, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Durham. It also has almost 30 clients in the USA and Canada. GeckoLabs raised £1.8m in the reported funding round, bringing total funding to £3m. The company intends to use the funds to continue developing new products and to open an office in New York to grow market share in North America. Founded in 2012 by Matt Lanham and based in Edinburgh, GeckoLabs plans to add 10 jobs in the UK and 28 roles in the US and Canada. GeckoLabs develops cloud-based software that helps universities and colleges manage and improve their student recruitment processes. Founded in Edinburgh in 2012, the company works with over 30 of the UK’s top universities and colleges, including Robert Gordon University, Newcastle University, University of East Anglia, University of East London and University of Southampton. It participated in the ignite100 accelerator in 2012 and previously received investment from Northstar Ventures, IP Group and four angel investors. The company plans to use new funding to strengthen marketing, develop new customer tools, and open a London office that will create 10 jobs. GeckoLabs also aims to expand into North America and Asia in the near future. The operating focus remains on deepening adoption among higher-education institutions in the UK while preparing for international growth.

Participated · Equity · May 2019

Dxcover develops the PANAROMIC™ Platform and MOSA-Dx™ multiomic spectral analysis approach to enable early detection of solid tumor cancers from minute liquid biopsy samples. The platform uses AI-driven analysis and reports results with a one-day turnaround, supported by data from over 9,000 patients and 250,000 spectra to tune sensitivity and specificity. Dxcover’s technology is globally patented and intended to provide rapid, clinician-actionable results to improve patient management. With the new $6.2M investment (bringing total funding to $21.4M since its 2019 spinout), the company will further advance its proprietary technologies and scale operations. Plans include expanding into new markets and indications, commercializing a Brain Cancer Liquid Biopsy across the UK and Europe, and establishing a US headquarters in Nashville following US incorporation in 2024. Recent senior leadership appointments (co-founders as CSO and CTO and a General Manager for UK/US sites) are aimed at accelerating commercialization and international growth. Dxcover develops a liquid biopsy platform that uses infrared spectroscopy of blood samples combined with AI algorithms to detect pan-omic biomarkers for early-stage cancers. The company has generated clinical data showing high-accuracy detection of Stage I and Stage II cancers and expanded its technology to eight cancers in 2022. The funding announced will accelerate development and commercialization of organ-specific tests, beginning with brain cancer and expanded colorectal cancer programs. Dxcover plans a multicenter study toward CE IVDR marking for its Brain Cancer test and will continue collaborative projects to broaden its pipeline. The company was formed in 2019 and is based in Scotland, United Kingdom, while expanding its network in Europe and the USA. Financially, Dxcover announced $11.9M in combined Series A and grant financing to support these activities. ClinSpec Diagnostics is a Glasgow spinout from the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde. Led by CEO Mark Hegarty, the company develops a liquid-biopsy blood test for early cancer detection that combines infra-red light and artificial intelligence, based on research by Dr Matthew Baker. The technology is intended as a minimally invasive assay for early detection of cancer. ClinSpec has received grant funding from the Higgs EDGE Special Award and Innovate UK through the precision medicine accelerator fund. It completed seed funding in 2019 and subsequent financing tranches, and has raised £5.1m to date. Following the latest investment, Prof David Onions of Norcliffe Capital joined ClinSpec’s board of directors. ClinSpec Diagnostics develops a multi-cancer early detection test based on a simple blood assay, spun out from the University of Strathclyde. Led by CEO Mark Hegarty, the company has run studies on brain, prostate and pancreatic cancers. It intends to use the funding to progress its multi-cancer development program, complete a second brain cancer trial, and develop a multi-cancer algorithm covering the most common cancers. The company plans to hire five more employees to strengthen scientific and operations teams, bringing headcount to fourteen. ClinSpec was established in 2016 and has raised grant funding from the Higgs EDGE Special Award and Innovate UK alongside prior seed investment. ClinSpec Diagnostics is advancing a blood test that can provide accurate results in ten minutes and aims to improve brain cancer survival through earlier detection. The technology uses infra-red light combined with machine learning and is based on research by Dr Matthew J. Baker at the University of Strathclyde. The company has demonstrated the brain cancer test’s potential in a clinical study at Edinburgh’s Western Infirmary. ClinSpec plans to further develop its brain cancer test and begin work on tests for prostate and pancreatic cancer. Management is led by CEO Dr Mark Hegarty. The firm says the technology also has applications beyond medicine, including testing in the food, drug and oil industries. Financially, the company has secured multiple funding sources to support development and hiring plans.

Led · Equity · May 2019

Pharmaseal International provides Engility CTMS, a next-generation clinical trials management system that helps pharmaceutical companies control trials and improve governance. Engility is the first of a series of products the company plans to develop for the pharma and medical device industries. The company intends to use recent funding to enhance the platform with additional features and to launch the product worldwide. Pharmaseal was established in 2016 and is led by CEO Daljit Cheema and Chairman Neil Rotherham. As part of recent corporate developments, senior pharma IT executive Ian Jennings will join the board as a non-executive director. The company has a history of external funding, having raised additional capital in prior rounds. Pharmaseal International develops cloud software to help pharmaceutical companies manage and monitor clinical trials in line with GCP regulatory standards. The company has built a prototype and plans to roll out its first module: a trial management platform for clinical trial operators. The team also intends to release two further modules: a patient safety tool to identify adverse outcomes and a licence and regulatory management tool for submitting audit data to regulators. Pharmaseal was established in 2016 by Daljit Cheema and Sara Rutner; Rutner leads its New Jersey office targeting the US market, and the company is based in Nottingham, UK. The startup secured equity funding to support the product rollout and module development. In conjunction with the funding, Dr Neil Rotherham, founder and ex-CEO of ClinPhone, joined Pharmaseal as Chairman.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2019

BlackCurve is a London-based provider of a platform that enables online retailers to evaluate and optimise product pricing decisions. Founded in 2017 by Philip Huthwaite, the platform lets customers set rules that automatically change prices in reaction to competitor behaviour, similar to advanced systems used by Amazon. Its global customer base includes players in electrical goods, fashion and shipping. The company raised £750K in the described funding round, bringing total capital raised to £3.7M. BlackCurve intends to use the funds to expand in its core online markets and to further drive down its cost of sale. The product focuses on automating pricing decisions so retailers can respond dynamically to competitors. BlackCurve is a SaaS price-optimization platform that combines a rules-based engine with artificial intelligence to help retailers manage and optimize the price of each item they sell. The platform ingests data sources such as sales history, web transactions, competitor prices and inventory levels to create and enforce intelligent pricing rules. It serves mid-to-large multichannel retailers across categories including sports, DIY, gardening, homeware, consumer electronics, pet supplies, stationery, auto parts, toys, beauty and healthcare. The platform currently optimizes prices for more than 1 million products and executes over 15 million price changes per month, enabling measured margin improvements of up to 9% while saving time and resources. Founded in 2016, BlackCurve has raised £1M in the latest round and has raised £3M of external investment to date. The company plans to use the funds to expand its core sales, software development and data-science teams, continue product development and scale its customer base through integrations with platforms such as BigCommerce, Magento and Shopify. BlackCurve provides a pricing optimization platform powered by artificial intelligence that ingests sales history, website performance, competitor pricing and stock levels to create smart pricing rules. The system optimizes prices for over 1 million products and executes over 15 million price changes per month. It serves mid-to-large multichannel retailers across categories including consumer electronics, home goods, sporting equipment, automotive parts, pet supplies and more. Founded in 2016 and led by CEO Philip Huthwaite, the company intends to use recent funding to accelerate commercial development, double its team and strengthen its product offering. The platform focuses on enabling retailers to meet specific business goals through item-level pricing decisions. BlackCurve is based in London, UK. BlackCurve offers a pricing management platform that uses pricing algorithms and machine learning to help online retailers find optimal prices. The technology powers over 250,000 pricing suggestions per day and actively manages over six million products for clients. Clients named in the article include Ribble Cycles, Cleverboxes and Appliance House. The company plans to use new funding to expand its core team across sales, software development and data science and to continue developing its software. It also intends to further scale its client base through strategic platform integrations. BlackCurve was founded in 2016 by Charles and Philip Huthwaite and is based in London.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2018

Kumulos provides a platform that incorporates multiple tools to help companies and developers improve mobile app performance, offering user engagement data, App Store ranking optimization and customer notifications. Set up in 2015 as a spinout from Waracle and led by Mark Petrie and Bob Lawson, the company serves customers in 23 countries. Kumulos completed a £750k funding round to support its growth. Backers in the round included Mercia Fund Managers, the Scottish Investment Bank and angel investors; the company previously received £500k from private investors to develop its product. The firm intends to use the funds to expand its technical and sales and marketing teams and to invest in marketing activities to drive growth. Headquartered in Dundee, Scotland, Kumulos is using the investment to scale adoption of its mobile app management platform internationally.