Scottish Biotech Firm Overcomes Market Challenges to Raise £5m
A Scottish biotech firm, Cytomos, has successfully raised £5 million in funding to drive sales of its rapid cell analysis technology. Despite facing a challenging market, the company’s chief executive, David Rigterink, expressed gratitude for the significant capital injection, describing it as a “huge boost for the business.”
The funding round was led by existing investors such as Archangels, Old College Capital, Scottish Enterprise, and the British Business Bank. This latest round follows a previous £4m funding round supported by the same group of investors.
Cytomos’ flagship product, Celledonia, is a benchtop cell analyzer based on the innovative AuraCyt technology platform. The technology is poised to revolutionize drug discovery and development by streamlining the evaluation of new medical therapies.
Mr. Rigterink revealed that the company is now eyeing expansion into the North American market. They have lined up a series of trials with global partners and have garnered significant interest in co-development opportunities from prominent technology developers and a major pharmaceutical group.
The successful fundraising of £5m in a challenging market environment has laid a solid foundation for Cytomos to scale rapidly, establish a presence in the US, and advance its single-cell analysis technology to support advancements in biological drug development and manufacturing automation.
With a current workforce of 21 employees, Cytomos anticipates adding four more staff members in the upcoming year as part of its growth strategy. The company, founded by University of Edinburgh graduate Dr. Keith Muir, has enjoyed the backing of the Archangels investment group since its inception, with the first significant seed funding round taking place in 2018.
Director at Archangels, Sarah Hardy, emphasized the significant progress made by Cytomos, particularly with the successful commercialization earlier this year. She highlighted the company’s new premises and robust plan to de-risk the supply chain, expressing optimism about supporting the team in scaling operations and accessing new markets.
