Led · Series A · Feb 2024

Echopoint Medical, a UCL spinout, has developed the iKOr system, a proprietary diagnostic solution intended to enhance precision, ease and reliability of coronary flow assessments. The system is aimed at facilitating early intervention and better management of angina, with particular emphasis on improving diagnosis in women. The company completed a 10‑patient clinical trial at Bart’s Hospital in London. Echopoint is using its recent funding to advance the iKOr through the FDA approval process and prepare for a US market debut. The company positions the iKOr to accelerate adoption of key diagnostic indicators in interventional cardiology. The Series A infusion signals a move from university research toward commercialisation and US market entry. Echopoint Medical is a UCL spinout that develops microcatheters with fibre‑optic sensors to accurately measure blood pressure and flow. Its technology platform translates ultrasound signals from those sensors into clinically meaningful metrics. The product targets coronary heart disease patients in a ‘grey zone’ where treatment need is unclear, aiming to enable more precise assessment and substantially reduce unnecessary stent implants. The company intends to use the new funds to further develop its optical fibre sensors and the signal‑translation platform. Echopoint was founded in November 2018 and is based in London, UK. The leadership team includes executive chairman Antony Odell, CTO Dr Adrien Desjardins and CMO Dr Malcolm Finlay.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2023

Intrinsic Semiconductor Technologies is a UCL spinout, founded in 2017, that develops patented memory technology to enable integration of low-power memory on the same chip as processors. The technology aims to solve the memory bottleneck for data-hungry applications and enable a new generation of small devices with embedded intelligence. The company was founded by Professor Tony Kenyon, Dr Adnan Mehonic and Dr Wing Ng and is led by CEO Mark Dickinson. Intrinsic intends to use the newly raised capital to expand its engineering team and bring its product to market. Financially, the company raised £7M in funding and additionally secured £1M in grants from InnovateUK to support its development and commercialization efforts. Intrinsic Semiconductor Technologies is a UCL spinout commercialising memristive ReRAM/RRAM devices invented by Professor Tony Kenyon and Dr Adnan Mehonic. Its core product is a silicon oxide memristor-based non-volatile memory designed to be compatible with standard CMOS processing, enabling easier on-chip integration, lower power consumption, and higher performance than Flash. The company is developing commercial prototypes in partnership with semiconductor research foundry imec using industry-standard CMOS processing on 300mm silicon wafers. Intrinsic aims to establish proven designs as licensable IP for chip manufacturers and sees applicability across IoT, edge AI, analogue AI accelerators, neuromorphic computing and everyday electronic products. The company was established in 2017, is based in London, and has support from UCL Business as its commercialisation arm. It recently closed a £1.35M seed funding round to advance prototype development and commercialisation.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2020

Nozzle.ai provides an Amazon-focused platform that combines advertising audit, customer analytics and advertising bid management to help brands maximise sales and share advertising performance. The product ingests rich transactional and media datasets available through Amazon’s API ecosystem to deliver operational efficiencies, deep insights and continuous media-spend optimization across Amazon’s ad tech stack. It targets sellers, brands and their agencies to drive market share and profitability on Amazon. The company is a spinout of UCL’s Computer Science Department and is led by Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Victor Malachard. Nozzle.ai raised $2.6M (£2M) to expand the team across all business functions and further develop its product offering. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate adoption among sellers, brands and agencies. MediaGamma operates an automated futures and options exchange for digital advertising that lets buyers and sellers agree on price and volume for future real-time media placements across multiple digital channels. The platform is currently being piloted with a number of participants. Its customers include brands, agencies, and publishers. The company has received early support from Accelerate Cambridge and has £200k in grants from the UK government’s Innovate UK programme. Leadership comprises Co-founder and CEO Rael Cline and Co-founder and CTO Dr Jun Wang. Early backers and board members include John Taysom and Angus Bankes.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2020

Bramble Energy develops hydrogen fuel cell stacks using a printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing route to enable faster, lower-cost production. The company’s core products are portable power units and liquid-cooled fuel cell stacks intended for commercial decarbonisation applications. The recent £35 million Series B will fund global roll-out of portable power products and continued development of its liquid-cooled stack capability. Founded in 2016 by Dr Tom Mason (CEO and Co‑Founder), Bramble leverages the existing global PCB manufacturing base to turn concepts into physical units within days, saving up to a year in development time. Following a previous funding round in summer 2020, the team has grown from 3 to 35 as it advances toward scaled hydrogen adoption and net zero goals. Bramble Energy has developed a patent-protected hydrogen fuel cell technology that can be manufactured in almost all printed circuit board (PCB) factories worldwide, enabling rapid scale-up and lower capital requirements compared with traditional fuel cell designs. The company says its approach dramatically reduces lead times, up-front investment, manufacturing cost and scalability barriers for hydrogen fuel cells. Bramble has begun product acceptance testing with BOC/Linde for supply into their Hymera product range. Funding from the recent round will support launch of a portable power product range beginning with a low-cost, flexible 20W unit followed by 60W and 100W versions as zero-emission replacements for diesel generators. The company is also developing high power-density, liquid-cooled fuel cell systems using the same scalable, low-cost platform. Bramble was founded in 2016 as a spinout from UCL and Imperial College London.

Participated · Series A · May 2019

Quell Therapeutics is a London, UK and Boston, MA-based company developing engineered T‑regulatory (Treg) cell therapies to address serious medical conditions driven by the immune system. Its platform is designed to enable the design, engineering and scalable manufacture of therapeutic Treg products, and includes proprietary Phenotype‑Lock technology to stabilise an immunosuppressive phenotype, CAR modules for tissue targeting, and additional modules to enhance disease‑specific efficacy and safety. The lead candidate, QEL-001, is an antigen‑specific multi‑modular CAR‑Treg being developed to induce operational tolerance following liver transplantation and is entering the LIBERATE Phase 1/2 clinical trial. Quell is also advancing programs in neuroinflammatory and autoimmune diseases and is developing both autologous and allogeneic CAR‑Treg platforms. The company intends to use recently raised capital to fund LIBERATE, advance its pipeline across transplantation, neuroinflammation and autoimmunity, and accelerate platform development. Quell raised $156M in a Series B to support these efforts. Quell Therapeutics is developing engineered T regulatory (Treg) cell therapies that leverage Tregs' immune-suppressive capacity. The company aims to advance therapies for indications including solid organ transplant rejection and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Quell was founded by Syncona in partnership with six leading experts in Treg biology, cell engineering, transplantation and autoimmune disease. The company plans to use the Series A proceeds to initiate development of its first program and to build out operations and its management team. Syncona's team will work closely with Quell as it advances its programs and expands the company.