EMV Capital (“EMVC”), the VC investor specialising in early-stage high-growth deep tech and life sciences companies, is delighted to announce that it has led the completion of a new £3.2 million investment round in its portfolio company, Vortex Biotech Holdings Limited (“Vortex”).
Vortex is focused on developing its position in the multi-billion dollar oncology liquid biopsy market. Its core technology allows for the capture and isolation of intact, label-free and pure Circulating Tumour Cells (“CTCs”) from blood samples. Its mission is to be the innovation leader in CTC capture technology that together with a range of downstream workflows help to enumerate and characterise the CTCs to improve therapeutic decision making and save lives. This exciting area will provide researchers and clinicians with access to critical insights from whole cancer cells that underpin one of the main causes of metastasis, treatment resistance and disease recurrence, contributing to a major shift in how cancer can be treated and monitored.
EMV Capital advised on the structuring of the investment deal, combining EIS, family office and institutional investment. Alongside the new investors into Vortex, NetScientific converted a £0.4 million loan into equity. Following completion of the fundraising, the total equity holding of NetScientific in Vortex is now 24.98%. In addition, following excellent support from EMV Capital’s EIS investor network, the EMVC capital under advisory with Vortex stands at 13.90% of the issued share capital. EMV Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary and the corporate finance and venture capital arm of NetScientific Plc (AIM:NSCI), a life sciences and technology commercialisation and investment group.
Paul Jones, CEO of Vortex, commented:
“We are thrilled to welcome this new investment, enabled by EMV Capital’s fund-raising support. It helps us accelerate our plans for a breakthrough in how CTCs can be used to inform oncology treatment and monitoring.
“Precision diagnostics in combination with innovations around targeted therapies are enabling remarkable progress in personalised medicine. We are determined that Vortex will play a major role in this space – in the short term at the interface to biopharma and in the long term, in partnership with clinical health systems worldwide.”
Dr Ilian Iliev, MD of EMV Capital and CEO of NetScientific added:
“This transaction clearly showcases our unique ability to combine a capital light investment approach with value creation support for promising businesses. Following support by our value creation services, fundraising, and EIS investor network, the company is now ready to accelerate its growth in the UK and US. With this new investment, Vortex is well positioned to advance its presence in the multi-billion dollar oncology liquid biopsy market.”
About EMV Capital
EMV Capital is an award-winning deep tech VC investor specialising in early stage high-growth companies in the life science, sustainability, and industrials sectors in the UK and internationally.
EMV Capital develops unique investment strategies for each portfolio company, drawing on its EIS fund and extensive network of private investors, family offices, institutions, and corporate VCs. Delivery and successful execution of these investment strategies enables innovative portfolio companies to raise funding to drive transformational growth.
EMV Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary of NetScientific plc (AIM:NSCI), a life sciences and technology commercialisation and investment group.
EMV Capital has a multi-disciplinary team of specialist investors, portfolio managers, capital raisers, legal, finance, marketing, and support staff. The company is focused on primary and secondary investments, through debt and/or equity.
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About Vortex Biotech Holdings Limited (“Vortex”)
Vortex, which has benefited from c.$38.5 million in historical investments in the US and Europe, has developed a “no touch” microfluidic chip technology which captures intact, label-free and pure circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from blood, with high yields. These CTCs can then be analysed using a range of downstream workflows that help characterise them. This will provide researchers and clinicians with access to critical insights from whole cancer cells that underpin one of the main causes of metastasis, treatment resistance and disease recurrence.
Originally a spin-out from University of California, Los Angeles, Vortex is now headquartered in the UK, with operations in London and the Bay Area, US. As the next phase of growth, Vortex will set up CTC Centres of Excellence with an associated lab services business to serve biopharma customers. This will help deliver a step change in the use of CTCs to inform oncology treatment and monitoring. Longer term, Vortex will look to build on academic and industry engagement to open an interface into clinical health systems around the world.