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

o2h Ventures invests into the UCL spin out company SomaServe. 
o2h Ventures invests into the UCL spin out company SomaServe. 
Feb 22 2021

The o2h human health EIS Fund, is excited to announce a follow-on investment into Cambridge, UK based Somaserve Ltd.  Somaserve is well positioned to collaborate with both biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to explore its proprietary PolyNaut® Technology to improve the therapeutic viability of molecules. Somaserve is under-going an evaluation of its technology with one of the largest pharma companies in the world. It has also established a commercial partnership with AiM listed multi-billion  GBP Abcam to develop and commercialise its technology through its customer base.  

Prior to this, o2h Ventures invested 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 have joined this investment round and will soon be announced. 

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 both fee for service 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 pharma service and specialist reagent business exploiting PolyNaut Technology to image live cells and improve the therapeutic viability of molecules with poor pharmacokinetic and chemical properties. 

PolyNaut Technology is a versatile nano-engineered polymer technology for in vivo intracellular delivery. The resulting polymer nanoparticle vesicle is known as ‘the bionic nanoparticle’. The widely diverse polymer structure is highly flexible and can accept small molecules, peptides and proteins, antibodies, nuclear material, dyes and probes. The resulting nanoparticles then deliver their cargo to the interior of the cell, greatly enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of the encapsulated molecules. In addition, it is possible to functionalise the vesicle surface with targeting ligands to aid penetration of biological barriers such as the blood brain barrier and deliver to specific cells (Phenotypic Targeting). This cell delivery technology can also be successfully employed to enhance live cell imaging. The resulting CelLuminate suite of dyes have been developed to image live cells in vitro. CelLuminate has 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. 

The patented PolyNaut technology underpins SomaServe’s Precision Services offering. Precision Services provide bespoke drug discovery and product development services to pharma and non-pharma companies for proprietary molecules through the conduct of iterative feasibility studies and technology licence. The focus of the Precision Services division is to improve the therapeutic viability of potential therapeutic molecules with poor pharmacokinetic and chemical properties. 

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

 

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Please refer to the relevant fund’s full risk warnings contained in their Information Memorandums.
Your capital is at risk. Investing in early stage businesses involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution, and it should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. o2h Ventures’ funds are targeted exclusively at sophisticated or high net worth investors who understand these risks and make their own investment decisions. Tax relief depends on an individual’s circumstances and may change in the future. In addition, the availability of tax relief depends on the company invested in maintaining its qualifying status. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. You should not rely on any past performance as a guarantee of future investment performance.
o2h ventures Limited is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 812245). Capital at risk, only suitable for high net worth and sophisticated investors
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Risk Information

Due to the potential for losses, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers this investment to be high risk

What are the key risks?

1 – You could lose all the money you invest

• 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)

• Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA-regulated firm, FOS may be able to consider it. Learn more about FOS protection here. (https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers)

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)