Science Creates start-ups raise £33M this year to pursue deep tech ambitions
Deep tech start-ups are gaining traction this year and Science Creates, which provides scientific start-ups with comprehensive facility, investor and network support, said its members collectively raised over £33 million in the first half of this year.
The deep tech community highlighted this was more than double (at £14.4 million) the figure for its community-wide fundraising figure at the same time in 2021.
And despite the challenging economic landscape, more broadl, equity investment in UK deep tech has soared from £174 million to more than £5 billion in the last ten years with Bristol continuing to claim an increasing chunk of regional and national deep tech companies.
"Deep tech companies need specialist investment from people who can understand both the fundamental aspects of the technology and how to unlock that potential into a product for commercialisation," said Dr Catherine Fletcher, partner at SCVC.
"As exited founders, scientists and engineers ourselves, we are ideally positioned to support these companies and it is our mission to help transform their ideas to ultimately help people and the planet – that’s why we founded SCVC.”
The ten start-ups and Science Creates members, which shared the £33 million plus of investment, are Anaphite, which secured £1.6 million. The firm is developing dry-coating technology to reduce the cost of EV battery manufacturing.
Delta.g, the quantum tech firm, received £2.4 million to develop the next generation of gravity gradient sensors.
Ensilitech raised £1.7 million to develop the world’s first thermally stable mRNA vaccine as part of national efforts to tackle diseases with epidemic potential in low- and middle-income countries.
Meanwhile, Folium Science was awarded £350,000 to reduce ammonia emissions in poultry production as part of a national programme to boost the agricultural sector’s productivity, sustainability and growth.
Biotech firm IsomAb secured £7.5 million to accelerate its lead treatment candidate for peripheral arterial disease via a seed funding round backed by Science Creates’ VC arm, SCVC, and led by Boston-based cardiovascular specialist investor Broadview Ventures.
Sustainable materials innovators Kelpi brought in £4.3 million to scale-up and roll-out its water-resistant coating to replace polluting fossil fuel plastics in food, drink and toiletries packaging.
Elsewhere, KETS Quantum Security secured a £1.7 million contract to advance its next-generation Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) solution and accelerate the UK’s leadership in the emerging global market for commercial quantum-safe communications.
LettUs Grow, the indoor farming group, raised £750,000 and Nebu~Flow raised £4.7 million in a funding round.
Finally, WASE, the wastewater specialists, raised £8.5 million.
Science Creates said it looked forward to what the rest of 2024 will bring for deep tech innovation.
