o2h ventures leads the funding into Cambridge University Biotech Spinout Spirea - o2h Ventures

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all your money invested. This is a high risk investment. You could lose all the money you invest and are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more

Dec 7 2020

The o2h human health EIS Fund, is excited to announce an investment into Spirea, a University of Cambridge Biotechnology spin out that is developing the next generation of game changing antibody drug conjugates (ADC) to transform cancer treatment and drastically improve the lives of patients. Spirea has developed a proprietary platform technology, ShieldLink, that may lead to novel ADCs with enhanced ability to treat patients safely and effectively.

Sunil Shah, CEO at o2h ventures, said: “There is a significant interest in ADC’s, as seen by Merck’s recent $2.75B VelosBio acquisition for their ROR1 antibody drug conjugate. We believe that this platform has potential to develop more effective and safer ADC’s and could lead to a series of co-development opportunities with big pharma”.

Dr Myriam Ouberai, CEO of Spirea, said: “We are delighted to have attracted seed funding from o2h ventures. This investment and their support serve as endorsements of our approach and will allow us to optimise and validate our technology.”

About o2h ventures:

The o2h human health EIS Fund is the first S/EIS fund in the UK solely focused on investing in EIS and/or SEIS seed stage companies covering novel drug discovery & AI, digital therapeutics and enabling services.

The o2h team are leaders in the biotech community and have been actively involved as investors, holding various board/industry positions as well as being engaged in grassroots scientific activity for over 20 years. o2h ventures operates from their proprietary 2.7 acre Mill SciTech Park where they are developing a unique model for incubating small life science companies.

For more information or to invest in the fund, please visit www.o2hventures.com

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What are the key risks?

• If the business you invest in fails, you are likely to lose 100% of the money you invest. Most start-up businesses fail.

2 – You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong

• Protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), in relation to claims against failed regulated firms, does not cover poor investment performance. Try the FSCS investment protection checker here. (https://www.fscs.org.uk/check/investment-protection-checker)

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3 – You won’t get your money back quickly

• Even if the business you invest in is successful, it may take several years to get your money back. You are unlikely to be able to sell your investment early.

• The most likely way to get your money back is if the business is bought by another business or lists its shares on an exchange such as the London Stock Exchange. These events are not common.

• If you are investing in a start-up business, you should not expect to get your money back through dividends. Start-up businesses rarely pay these.

4 – Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

• Putting all your money into a single business or type of investment for example, is risky. Spreading your money across different investments makes you less dependent on any one to do well.

• A good rule of thumb is not to invest more than 10% of your money in high-risk investments (https://www.fca.org.uk/investsmart/5-questions-ask-you-invest)

5 – The value of your investment can be reduced

• The percentage of the business that you own will decrease if the business issues more shares. This could mean that the value of your investment reduces, depending on how much the business grows. Most start-up businesses issue multiple rounds of shares.

• These new shares could have addition rights that your shares don’t have, such as the right to receive a fixed dividend, which could further reduce your chances of getting a return on your investment.

If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself, visit the FCA’s website here (https://www.fca.org.uk/investsmart)