Cambridge, UK, 31th March 2021 – SomaServe Ltd, a pioneer in nanomedicines for crossing biological barriers today announced that it has completed a highly successful, oversubscribed Series A funding of £2.1m. SomaServe has also secured further IP and global commercial rights to PolyNaut platform technology (the bionic nanoparticle) from UCLB. The company now has exclusive PolyNautâ rights in all indications.
The o2h human health EIS Fund invested into Cambridge, UK based Somaserve Ltd in its seed funding round in July 2019. Investors at that time included Abcam and a small group of angels including some Cambridge Angels. New investors alongside a further investment from the human health EIS fund include Meltwind and Origin Capital.
The success of this funding round is testament to the progress made with collaborators in evaluating PolyNaut for penetrating the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the launch by Abcam of PolyNaut-Dye products.
Sunil Shah, CEO at o2h Ventures said: “We are pleased with the progress that the management team has made to commercialise the technology since its inception and they are very well poised to build more collaborations with pharmaceutics and biotechnology companies building collaborations and licensing revenues”.
Dr. Fran Crawford, CEO of SomaServe, said: “o2h Ventures have been a supportive investor providing guidance and introductions when we have requested this from them. We are delighted that they continue to see the commercial potential of our platform”.
About SomaServe:
Founded in 2018, SomaServe was spun out of UCL with the mission to build a uniquely positioned polymer nanomedicine company exploiting PolyNaut Technology to improve the therapeutic viability of molecules with poor pharmacokinetic and chemical properties and to image live cells.
SomaServe pioneers new therapies for crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and other biological barriers- targeting neuronal, malignant and immune system tissues using its innovative, leading-edge technology PolyNaut (a bionic nanoparticle vesicle). Using proprietary, phenotypic targeting algorithms, cells of choice can be forensically targeted with ligands selected to bind to specific receptors expressed on the cell surface. SomaServe works across a wide range of modalities, including nucleic acids, antibodies, proteins, peptides and small molecules.
SomaServe collaborates with pharma, biotech and non-pharma companies using PolyNaut for bespoke drug discovery and product development, enhancing promising proprietary molecules. The company’s focus is to improve the therapeutic viability of potential therapeutic molecules with poor pharmacokinetic and chemical properties.
PolyNaut cell delivery technology can also be successfully employed to enhance live cell imaging. The resulting PolyNaut-Dye suite has been developed to image live cells in vitro. PolyNaut-Dyes have the benefit of significantly reduced cytotoxicity compared to industry standard cell imaging reagents. Cells under test can remain functional and viable for periods of up to fourteen days, giving researchers in industry and academia more time for image analysis. PolyNaut Dyes are marketed by Abcam.
For more information see http://somaserve.com/home-somaserve
About o2h Ventures:
The o2h human health Fund is the first S/EIS fund in the UK solely focused on investing in EIS fund and/or SEIS fund 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 about o2h Ventures Funds, please visit www.o2hventures.com
Media Contact:
Ajit Singh,
Marketing Manager,
ajit@o2h.com
