Palatine Private Equity has acquired a majority stake in Routes Healthcare, one of the North’s leading providers of specialist person-centred health and homecare services. Headquartered in the North-West, the business operates from 14 service centres, employing 120 operational and management staff, along with 1,000 carers.

Ochre Bio, a biotech company developing RNA medicines for chronic liver diseases, has raised $9.6M seed financing led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Backed VC, Apollo Health Ventures, Selvedge, Hoxton and Hermes-Epitek. The funding will be used to advance the development of Ochre Bio’s RNA therapies and expand their deep phenotyping platform to identify and validate new liver targets.

Hertility Health, the new women’s health start-up revolutionising the world of hormone and reproductive health, has announced the closing of a £4.2 million Seed funding round led by LocalGlobe - one of the UK's most prolific seed investors, Venrex, and some key angel investors including former CEO of Bupa, Evelyn Bourke, CEO of Nested and the unicorn company GoCardless, Matt Robinson.

Iceni Diagnostics, a specialist carbohydrate chemistry company based in Norwich, which raised funds in November 2020 from RAB Capital and Angel investors, has agreed an exclusive global licence, to integrate key virus detection intellectual property (IP) developed by the University of Warwick, into its commercial diagnostics programmes.

Fertility Focus, the manufacturers of the OvuCore and OvuSense Pro family of leading fertility monitoring solutions, with class II medical device classification and 510k FDA clearance – has launched OvuFirst, a completely unique patented sensor designed to measure skin temperature, providing women with an understanding of when to try and conceive naturally, and enabling them to determine what issues they may have trying to conceive. Foresight Group has been a strategic partner with Fertility Focus since their £1.25 million investment in 2019.

NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund has invested £750,000 in Blueberry Therapeutics Limited, a drug discovery and development company focused on developing innovative nanomedicines for difficult to treat skin and nail infections. The funding will support the business as it embarks on the next set of clinical trials for a new topical antifungal spray for the treatment of onychomycosis using its unique nanodelivery platform technology, as well as progressing other product development lines.

Iksuda Therapeutics, the developer of a new generation of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) with raised therapeutic index, has completed a US $47 million (circa GB £34 million) financing round, co-led by Mirae Asset Capital and its subsidiaries, Celltrion and Premier Partners, with the Company being advised by Ashfords LLP. The funding will support the advancement of Iksuda’s lead ADC assets and expansion of its payload and conjugation platform technologies.

Atos and Huma, the digital health innovator, have announced a 5-year strategic global partnership to shift healthcare and clinical trials from hospital to home. The partnership will focus on Huma’s modular platform which can power digital ‘hospitals at home’ up to national scale, as well as support pharmaceutical and research industries to run complex global decentralized clinical trials. The platform is already used in the US and across Europe for illnesses ranging from atrial fibrillation to diabetes to Covid-19.

NEO KUMA Ventures, the UK’s first investment fund dedicated solely to psychedelic healthcare, has announced its investment in seven innovative healthcare companies.  The initial investments have proved successful with three of the seven companies going public this year, yielding between +180% and +680% return on initial investment.

The Riverside Company, a global private investor focused on the smaller end of the middle market, has signed a definitive agreement to sell Greenphire, the global leader in financial lifecycle management software for clinical trials, to Thoma Bravo, a software focused private equity firm. 

Keensight Capital, one of the principal private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout1 investments, has reached an agreement to invest alongside management in Symeres, a leading European drug discovery Contract Research Organization (CRO) and Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO). According to the terms of the agreement, Keensight Capital will acquire a majority stake in Symeres from the Gilde Healthcare Private Equity fund, a leading European specialist healthcare investor.

ICAS World Ltd (ICAS), a leading global provider of mental health and employee wellness services has acquired the NHS-commissioned mental health tech startup, Hello Tomo.