Andrew Aldridge, Partner at Deepbridge Capital, discusses why the life sciences sector is now back in favour with investors.

The past twelve months have showcased the importance of medical developments like never before. Innovation in the life sciences sector has been headline news around the globe and all aspects of the healthcare system have been under the microscope. Not only the direct response to the global pandemic, with vaccinations and treatments, but also the importance of mental health, the care home profession, screening programmes and telemedicine, have had the spotlight shone on them. 

Small Pharma Ltd and Unilock Capital Corp. have announced the closing of the brokered private placement of subscription receipts of Small Pharma Financing Inc., a special purpose British Columbia company incorporated solely for the purpose of the Financing, at a price of CAD$0.96 per Subscription Receipt for aggregate gross proceeds of CAD$58,000,000, with substantial U.S., UK and Canadian institutional investor support, including significant participation from leading biotech funds.

Diamond Whites Aligners, the rapidly growing at-home teeth aligner business, has raised £550,000 in Pre-Series A funding from Moscar Capital L.P., valuing the company at £6.875 million. The funds will be used to support Diamond Whites Aligner’s growth strategy, having recently announced the opening of its London headquarters and plans to double its employee headcount by H2 2021.

QVentures is thrilled to welcome Congenica, one of Britain’s fastest-growing genomics companies, into their portfolio.

QVentures was engaged by Congenica to broaden access to its Series C funding round to Family Offices and sophisticated high net worth individuals. The QVentures investment followed the initial close of the round in November 2020, which raised US$50m/£39m and was led by Legal & General and Tencent, alongside investors such as Parkwalk, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Downing, Xeraya, Puhua Capital, and IDO Investments.

eXmoor, the expert cell and gene therapy (CGT) services company, has raised an initial investment of £12m ($17m) from specialist healthcare investment firm MVM Partners to enable eXmoor’s ambitious expansion plans. This will create a new dedicated 50,000 sq ft CGT process development and clinical manufacturing facility in Bristol (UK). eXmoor has expanded rapidly over the last 5 years, developing a portfolio of clients across the UK and internationally, completing over 400 projects across 15 countries to date.

Downing Ventures' Healthcare team argues that now is a great time to invest in the sector.

Continulus, the Glasgow-headquartered online video-learning platform for health professionals, has secured £0.5m of equity investment from a consortium of UK investors.  The funds will be deployed to strengthen the Continulus management team, as well as enhancing the company’s technological capacity to permit its continuing expansion and collaboration with some of the world’s most highly respected medical organisations.

BGF has exited its investment in CHS Healthcare, a provider of outsourced services for the NHS and social care, following its acquisition by Acacium Group (formerly known as Independent Clinical Services), a specialised healthcare solutions partner with its head office in London.

BGF invested £10 million of growth capital into CHS in 2018, which helped the business expand its infrastructure and operations, supporting the provision of services to the NHS and local authorities nationwide. The investment also enabled CHS to bolster its senior management team and pursue an acquisitive growth strategy. 

Birmingham-based Linear Diagnostics has secured £800,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) and other investors in the company’s second round of funding.  The finance will facilitate the ongoing development of the company’s high-speed platform technology for point of care diagnostics. The funding package includes backing from MEIF Equity Finance, managed by venture capital firm Midven, the University of Birmingham and the UKI2S Fund. The UK Future Fund matched the investment from the initial investors. 

Wellbeing startup Psychological Technologies (PSYT) has raised over £1.7m, supported by Angel Investment Network, the world’s largest online angel investment platform. The startup turns the advice of the world's leading self-development authors into digital, action-based summaries to help individuals create real change.  Founded by the former Head of Research at Headspace Nick Begley, PSYT launched an MVP last year based on a single book called “The Anxiety Solution” to test the proposition. The MVP was featured by Apple in the “Best Apps of March 2020” and has an average rating of 4.9*. The raise took eight weeks with the funding being used to bulk out the full-time team, develop more content and launch a multibook platform.

Drug discovery and development company, Blueberry Therapeutics, is announcing a £3.6m extension to its previously successful £10.8m Series B fundraising.

Japanese investor, Medical Incubator Japan (MIJ), and a private syndicate of US Board Certified Dermatologists - led by Dr Omar Ibrahimi of the Connecticut Skin Institute - have invested £3.1m and £500k, respectively.

BGF has exitedf its investment in Arcinova, the U.K.-based multiservice contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). Following a period of growth and expansion, the business has been acquired by Quotient Sciences, the drug development and manufacturing accelerator, backed by the global private equity firm Permira.