Despite the backdrop of a tough economic climate Catapult Venture Managers has completed its 6th transaction this year with an investment into Liverpool-based molecular diagnostics company, Biofortuna Limited.
Catapult, alongside co-investor Enterprise Ventures - the UK-based venture and growth capital fund manager - have taken part in a £1.1m funding package which will be used to launch the company’s first genotyping products and to allow it to continue development of its future product pipeline.
Ben Bolt, Investment Director at Catapult, commented: “Biofortuna has all of the key ingredients that Catapult looks for in a successful early stage investment. This includes a management team combining both scientific and commercial skills and headed-up by a thought leader in the field. In addition, the company is benefiting from the addition of an experienced non-executive director. Add to this core products with genuine and proven USPs, a mature product development pipeline and a market that is innovative, embraces change and is growing; and this is a very exciting investment. We look forward to helping Mike and his team grow the Biofortuna brand.”
The company designs and develops innovative genotyping and antibody screening tests for the clinical healthcare market. It creates easy-to-use diagnostics that address complex genotyping issues and its novel processes, extensive experience and patented techniques are directly applicable to genetic tests for use in organ transplantation and management, blood banking, disease identification, microbiology and pharmacogenomics. Its tests aim to increase laboratory productivity and improve quality in clinical testing and patient care.
The company was formed in 2008, securing a research and development grant from the Northwest Development Agency and funding from the Liverpool Seed Fund shortly thereafter. 2009 saw the company signing sales and distribution agreements for European and North African markets, alongside regulatory approvals on its first product range. The company agreed a co-development and distribution deal with Edinburgh-based Lab901 Limited, a developer and manufacturer of innovative automation systems for the life science industry in November 2009 and in the same month, was awarded the prestigious award of Northwest Development Agency Start-up Business of the Year.
The management team is led by CEO Mike Bunce and fellow Directors, David Charvill and Ben Passey, who, following this funding round, will be joined by David Whitcombe, who was part of the founding team of DXS, a North West-based molecular diagnostics company sold to Qiagen in 2009 in a deal worth £80million.
Mike Bunce commented: “Biofortuna is very pleased to be working with two new successful investment firms, EV and Catapult, who join our existing investor, Liverpool Seed Fund. This investment will ensure that the strong progress we have made in the last year will accelerate and help our innovative product portfolio expand over the next year. It will also help us to strengthen our team and expand our research and manufacturing capabilities as we look forward to launching more products throughout 2010 and beyond.
We thank Halliwells’ Corporate Partner, Craig Scott and Associate, Richard McKay for advising Biofortuna on this deal. In addition, we would like to thank Mark Hurley and Lorna Green for their help and advice in fundraising.”
Julian Viggars, EV’s Head of Technology, said: “Biofortuna is a business we have tracked for a number of months now. I believe it is very well placed to benefit from the progression in thinking around how innovative, easy to use genotyping products will increasingly be used in the management of organ transplant processes, to identify potential adverse drug reactions or check the efficacy of expensive drugs across pharmacogenomics.”
“Mike and his team have built the company around a deep knowledge of the current marketplace and are highly rated. In David Whitcombe, we have added a manager who has been involved in building and very successfully exiting a related business and, with co-investor Catapult, the company now has the strong financial backing that will be required to succeed.”
Legal advice to EV and Catapult Venture Managers was provided by James Trevis and Jon Gill of Eversheds, and to the company by Craig Scott and Richard McKay of Halliwells.
- Ends -
Contacts:
Deborah Moon
Marketing Manager
D: 01772 270572
M: 07961 580289
Julian Viggars
Head of Technology Investment
M: 07946 547618
Ben Bolt
Investment Director, Catapult Venture Managers
D: 0121 616 0180
M: 07837 036795
Mike Bunce
CEO, Biofortuna
Notes to editors:
About Biofortuna Limited
Transplantation of bone marrow and solid organs (e.g. heart, kidney and lungs) carries a risk of rejection. To minimise this risk, both patients and donors undergo DNA typing for the major transplantation antigens, known as HLA antigens, and screening for the presence of antibodies that are directed at potential donor HLA antigens. There is a variety of methods for carrying out these tests already available on the market but they are either difficult to perform in large quantities and are therefore time consuming and expensive, or they can be carried out relatively quickly but provide a low specificity and resolution and therefore provide relatively coarse results when trying to match donor with recipient. Speed and accuracy of testing is important in solid organ transplantation: helping prevent organ rejection, easier interpretation of tests and helping reduce the cold storage time of organs which is a major factor in early function of a transplanted kidney.
Biofortuna has developed a unique range of products to provide both speed and accuracy to genotyping and antibody screening thereby reducing the number of transplants that fail and, in so doing, reduce post-transplantation mortality rates. Survival rates have improved over the last 20 years but despite this, 7% of solid organ transplants fail in the first year, rising to 17% after 5 years. 4% of recipients of solid organ transplants die within the first year (UK Transplant audit 2008).
The fundamental premise for the Biofortuna product range is to produce exceptional, cost-effective quality products that improve ease of use and thereby reduce error and above all to improve specificity and accuracy compared to those products currently available. The first of these products launching in May is a unique complete dried PCR system for genotyping HLA. The system has the benefit of greater simplicity, speed and accuracy over conventional systems with the added benefit of being ecologically sound as the kits are entirely stable at a wide range of temperatures thus removing the need to ship or store on ice. Biofortuna intends to apply this philosophy of accurate, easy to use methodology that is ecologically sound to all our future products.
Biofortuna’s technology platform can be adapted to provide genotyping products to identify potential adverse drug reactions or check the efficacy of expensive drugs such as immunosupressants. There are very few approved pharmacogenomics tests available at present; however increased healthcare costs and improved knowledge of how genetics influence the effects of drugs have led to rapid growth and a significantly increased demand for such tests.
About EV
EV Limited is a UK-based independent fund manager which provides venture and growth capital of up to £2million to new or existing SMEs located throughout the UK and operates from offices in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Preston. It manages a range of funds totaling more than £90million and focuses on all stages of development, including early stage, start-up, development capital, replacement capital and MBO/MBIs.
About Catapult
Catapult Venture Managers Ltd is a leading private equity fund manager with one of the largest investment teams in the Midlands operating from offices in Birmingham and Leicester. With £80m in Funds under its management, Catapult seeks equity investment opportunities from £200k to £2m for growing businesses throughout the UK and provides a full range funding requirement from early stage development capital to MBO/MBIs. 
