28 minute read
Operational report
We are delighted to report that the last year has been transformational for our business, despite the challenges posed by the global coronavirus pandemic. We have completed the first close of our new fund (Fund II) that we will manage alongside our balance sheet investments, and we have already added three companies to Fund II’s portfolio including Seldon Technologies, an Open Source DevOps company, further details of which are provided on pages 38 and 39.
Our balance sheet portfolio goes from strength to strength and now includes one company valued significantly in excess of £1 billion and two more, Bicycle Therapeutics and Centessa Pharmaceuticals, that are publicly traded on Nasdaq. In addition, since the year end we have announced that NeoGenomics, a leading provider of cancer-focused genetic testing services and global oncology contract research services, has acquired Inivata, our liquid biopsy company. The acquisition follows a $25 million investment by NeoGenomics in Inivata that completed in May 2020, at which time NeoGenomics also secured a fixed price option to purchase the shares it did not own for $390 million.
We first invested in Inivata at the seed round and have participated in every round since, validating our differentiated strategy of gaining early access to the most innovative life sciences and technology companies in the Cambridge ecosystem and supporting them through their lifecycles. Inivata’s InVision® platform unlocks essential genomic information from a simple blood draw to guide and personalise cancer treatment, monitor response and detect relapse. We are thrilled that this acquisition will accelerate patients’ access to Inivata’s groundbreaking technology that is based on the pioneering work of Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute.
IMPACT OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
We are pleased to report that the deep technology and life sciences sectors in which we invest have weathered the coronavirus storm well and our portfolio has continued to grow healthily. We have implemented various measures to ensure that our office is COVID-secure but in accordance with government guidance we are working from home when possible. As a result we are conducting a significant proportion of our investment and portfolio support activities remotely.
We have continued to work with our portfolio companies to mitigate the impact of business interruption and other challenges posed by the world’s response to the pandemic. This has included successfully applying for the government schemes that have been introduced during the current climate, specifically the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Future Fund for innovative businesses.
Having initially experienced a significant slowdown in venture capital activity as other investors, like us, focused on supporting their existing portfolios, we are pleased to report that several of our portfolio companies are making significant commercial progress and our pipeline for Fund II contains several particularly exciting opportunities.
We have significant cash resources and are, therefore, in a strong position to maintain our support for portfolio companies under management and enhance their aggregate value. PUTTING CAPITAL TO WORK
During the year ended 31 March 2021, the Group has completed 21 transactions (2020: 22) and deployed a total of £25.9 million (2020: £35.7 million) in two new and 13 existing portfolio companies, such that cumulatively £192.5 million (2020: £163.0 million) has been invested by the Group, or funds managed by the Group, since CIC’s incorporation.
EXPANDING THE PORTFOLIO
In May 2020 we invested in PetMedix, a biopharmaceutical company developing antibody-based therapeutics for companion animals, as a direct investment from the Group’s balance sheet. PetMedix has developed an innovative platform for the creation of naturally generated, fully species-specific therapeutic antibodies, enabling the discovery of its own veterinary medicines to target some of the most important clinical areas in animal health. Our funding will be used to further the development of PetMedix’s unique platform and pipeline, and we are delighted to support the company’s exciting growth transition from biotechnology start-up to clinical-stage animal health company.
More recently we co-led a £7.1 million Series A investment in Seldon, an Open Source DevOps company providing enterprises with the tools to manage, serve and optimise their machine learning models at scale, as the first investment by Fund II. Seldon is a cloud agnostic machine learning deployment specialist which works in partnership with industry leaders such as Google, Red Hat, IBM and Amazon Web Services. Seldon’s suite of products enhances machine learning deployment pipelines with best-in-class explainability, governance and monitoring functions. The company’s flagship open-source project, Seldon Core, has over 700,000 models deployed to date, drastically reducing friction for users deploying machine learning models. Seldon’s technology can help to ensure decisions made by machine learning algorithms are transparent and ethical, enabling customers to regulate the deployment of their models with significant oversight.
OPERATIONAL REPORT CONTINUED
SUPPORTING THE EXISTING PORTFOLIO
Congenica, the digital health company enabling rapid and accurate analysis of complex genomic data to transform people’s lives, in which we participated in a £39.0 million ($50 million) Series C round co-led by Tencent and Legal & General. The new funding is aimed at accelerating international market development and driving further expansion of Congenica’s product platform into somatic cancer, wellness and through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, Congenica will deliver advanced capabilities including the ability to integrate with existing electronic health systems and deliver fully automated interpretation capability.
GeoSpock, the Cambridge-based pioneer of world-scale data analysis and integration, in which we co-led a $5.4 million Series A investment round alongside nChain, a world-leading provider of enterprise-grade public blockchain solutions, with Global Brain and NTT DOCOMO also participating. This transformational round will underpin GeoSpock’s further international expansion and set the stage for unprecedented opportunity to develop novel blockchain applications for national and world-scale datasets.
Gyroscope, a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on treating diseases of the eye, completed a £107.8 million ($148 million) Series C financing led by Forbion’s Growth Opportunities Fund. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the clinical development of the company’s lead investigational gene therapy, GT005, as well as its early stage pipeline and innovative delivery technology, including its proprietary Orbit™ subretinal delivery system. GT005 is being evaluated for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration. GT005 has received Fast Track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration and is currently being evaluated in Phase II clinical trials in two genetically defined patient populations with geographic atrophy.
Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers, raised £10 million to support its pioneering work on identifying gut bacteria linked to phenotype with unprecedented precision in order to discover and develop live bacterial therapeutics and biomarkers. PragmatIC, a world leader in flexible electronics, raised over £13.0 million to support ongoing production rampup, accelerate manufacturing optimisation and drive continued product innovation. PragmatIC also appointed Erik Langaker, previously Chair of CMR Surgical, as independent Chair to complement its existing strong Board of Directors. Erik has an extensive background of developing and commercialising technology businesses, with 30 years’ international experience in private equity and entrepreneurial ventures. He has been an active investor and chair, or board director, in 25 companies, many of which are operating in sectors complementary to PragmatIC.
Riverlane, a quantum computing software developer transforming the discovery of new materials and drugs, in which we participated in a £14.6 million ($20 million) Series A round. The funding will be used to build Deltaflow, Riverlane’s operating system for quantum computers. Quantum computers will change the world by solving problems that are fundamentally impossible to solve on classical computers. This step change in computing power will have an enormous impact on a variety of industries, for example the pharmaceuticals and materials industry. Over the next five years we will continue to see rapid progress in quantum hardware development and, as the quantum industry develops, it’s vital that software is built on a solid foundation.
Sense Biodetection, which is developing a portfolio of instrument-free, point-of-care molecular diagnostic tests, announced that it had raised £35.7 million ($50 million) in a Series B round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, Inc. The funds will be used to advance commercialisation of Sense’s COVID-19 product, Veros™, and continue development of a portfolio of instrument-free, rapid molecular tests that enable improved access, outcomes, and value through patient-focused decentralised healthcare. The Veros™ platform introduces novel and proprietary rapid molecular amplification technology to detect a variety of deadly and costly diseases.
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DRIVING COMMERCIAL PROGRESS
Bicycle Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BCYC), a biotechnology company pioneering a new and differentiated class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) technology, has made substantial progress across its internal programmes, which consist of Bicycle Toxin Conjugates (BTC) targeting oncological indications as well as novel, fully synthetic, Bicycle tumour-targeted immune cell agonists. Bicycle’s lead BTC programme (BT1718) is actively enrolling patients in its Phase IIa trial which consists of two solid tumour cohorts, one focused on squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the other in an all-comers “basket” cohort. The company’s next most advanced BTC programme (BT5528) is in the doseescalation stage of the Phase I trial where preliminary signs of anti-tumour activity have been observed. The company has also made progress on its Bicycle-based partnered programmes outside of oncology, demonstrating the broad utility of the platform and its potential to develop novel therapeutics for a broad range of diseases.
CMR Surgical, a global surgical robotics business, announced the successful completion of over 1,000 in-human surgeries with the Versius® Surgical Robotic System following the launch of the systemin several healthcare settings across Europe, India and Australia including, inter alia: • Argenteuil Hospital, a leading public health centre based near Paris, France. This announcement followed a competitive tender with Versius® being selected as a preferred surgical robotic system for minimal access surgery (MAS) by Resah – one of the largest public purchasing centres in the health sector, which collaborates with more than 700 public and private nonprofit hospital, medico-social and social centres; • Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, a well-established surgical robotics centre, which became the first hospital in the UK to use Versius® in urology, as well as in colorectal surgery; • Klinikum Chemnitz, a leading public hospital based in Saxony, which became the first German hospital to install Versius® for a broad range of laparoscopic procedures; • several hospitals in India including Swagat Hospital, in
Guwahati, Lima Hospital in Chennai and SP Well Forte in
Trivandrum; and • Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney following approval of Versius® from the Australian Therapeutic
Goods Administration for use in general, gynaecological and urologic laparoscopic surgical procedures.
Imagen, the intuitive video management platform, announced a partnership with Newsbridge, the Paris-based AI-powered story production platform, and Broadcast Solutions, the leading broadcast tech solutions company, to facilitate the distribution of media to journalists and media organisations around the world. The combination of best-inclass tools creates one system to provide broadcasters with increased efficiency and faster speed-to-market, which is vital in today’s fast-paced media landscape. Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers, announced a collaboration with Cancer Research UK and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), to identify and develop microbiome co-therapeutics and biomarkers for cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. The collaboration is based on clinical studies conducted by CUH that evaluate immune checkpoint inhibitor drug response in cancer patients, combined with Microbiotica’s unrivalled microbiome profiling and analysis capability. Two clinical studies are involved: MELRESIST, a completed class-leading melanoma study, and MITRE, a major landmark study in melanoma, lung and renal cancer, involving 1,800 patients, specifically designed for evaluation of microbiome and other biomarker effects.
PetMedix, a biopharmaceutical company developing antibody-based therapeutics for companion animals, announced that it had entered into a multi-year partnership to develop novel and transformative companion animal antibody therapeutics using PetMedix’s proprietary Ky9™ platform. As part of the collaboration, PetMedix will undertake discovery activities against a number of key targets, and Boehringer Ingelheim will work to develop and bring these therapies to market.
PragmatIC Semiconductor, announced that it had partnered with Avery Dennison and Schreiner MediPharm to leverage NFC technology to extend smart packaging to the unit-level for everyday pharma in order to significantly improve patient safety and experiences. State-of-the-art NFC technology has a lot to offer in smart packaging applications, it can be used for tamper evidence, secure authentication, end-to-end traceability and easy re-ordering. In the case of pharmaceutical products it can also connect the patient to, not only easy-to-read instructions, but also video/audio guides, help lines, social media support groups and even to their doctor or clinician.
Riverlane, a quantum software company, publicly released the first version of Deltaflow. OS; ‘Deltaflow-on-ARTIQ’ just a few months after receiving a grant to develop and install an operating system across the UK’s quantum computers. Deltaflow.OS, created by Riverlane and tested in partnership with Oxford Ionics, could open up a quantum software market and establish the UK’s standing in the technology by creating a single system that can be used across a range of quantum computers. The release of Deltaflow-onARTIQ marks a significant step towards building a quantum operating system that is high performance, portable across all qubit technologies and scalable to millions of qubits.
OPERATIONAL REPORT CONTINUED
SEEDING FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
We have previously reported our role in founding Start Codon and Deeptech Labs, two Cambridge-based accelerators that are focused on accelerating the translation of world-class research into commercially successful companies. Further details are provided on page 27.
During the year we were delighted to announce that, together with Novartis International AG, we had contributed to Start Codon’s first fund which closed at £15 million. These funds will be used to support Start Codon’s offering to start-ups, which includes a minimum of £0.25 million of seed funding, business support services, expert guidance and access to cutting-edge office and lab facilities. Start Codon plans to invest in and support up to 50 startup companies over the next five years and has recently enrolled its second cohort of start-ups.
The Cambridge ecosystem has already created over a dozen billion-pound businesses and we believe that these accelerators will be important facilitators in creating many such successes. We are extremely proud to be founders and co-owners and we eagerly await the world-class businesses that will emerge from their programmes in the future.
AUGMENTING OUR TEAM
We have continued to expand our team and are delighted to welcome Ian Jauncey, as an Operating Partner, and Chris Tapper, as an Associate, to our investment team.
Ian is a technology and life sciences investor and entrepreneur. He shares his time between managing his private investment portfolio and assisting our companies through critical growth stages. Following university, Ian was the lead in the world-beating team that invented the first optical fibre amplifier, a key enabler for the internet. He then worked in analysis and consultancy, eventually heading up a business division for Siemens AG, before initiating several tech businesses, acquiring others and expanding them internationally, leading to multiple exits. Chris specialises in life science investments. He previously worked at C4X Discovery, an AIM-listed drug discovery biotechnology company, as part of the Corporate Strategy and Development team, where he focused on identifying and sourcing opportunities for in-licensing, collaboration and internal development. Chris also brings a background in strategy consulting and due diligence support, working in L.E.K. Consulting’s Life Sciences practice across the UK and US.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
Cambridge Innovation Capital is recognised as a leading provider of capital and expertise in the Cambridge ecosystem and despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our working practices, we have continued to support our portfolio companies and the wider community in which we work. We are delighted that several companies within our portfolio are demonstrating significant commercial traction and we are extremely proud that our businesses are making a material improvement to the world in which we live. We look forward with much anticipation to realising the value being generated by our portfolio and the future development of our business.
CAMBRIDGE ACCELERATORS
OPERATIONAL REPORT CONTINUED
We have worked closely with key stakeholders in the Cambridge ecosystem to establish two accelerators: Start Codon for life sciences and healthcare businesses, and Deeptech Labs for technology businesses. The goal of these accelerators is to speed up the process of going from “bench to product” by compressing years of learning for many companies and researchers into structured and intensive programmes, ending in a demo day.
OUR STRATEGIC RATIONALE
The Cambridge ecosystem is globally recognised as a centre of academic excellence and innovation, with an incredible track record for building category-leading life sciences and technology businesses. However, we identified an important gap in the ecosystem: dedicated hands-on support to bridge the gap between translational research and Series A ready businesses.
As a limited partner in the accelerator funds, CIC will benefit from pre-emption rights in companies participating in the accelerators.
THE PROGRAMME AND SUPPORT OFFERED TO ENTREPRENEURS
The accelerators support early stage businesses in multiple ways, including providing: • seed funding; • state-of-the-art lab and office space; • access to expert and hands on practitioners to support business model development and product-directed discovery; • integration into the Cambridge ecosystem; and • access to a global network of investors and corporate partners.
PROGRESS UPDATE
Start Codon achieved its goal of raising a £15 million fund with Novartis International AG and others investing alongside CIC. To date, Start Codon has invested in nine companies across two cohorts.
Deeptech Labs was established in February 2020 and, having appointed Miles Kirby as CEO in November 2020, is now in the process of raising its first fund. Miles has US and European experience in both financial and corporate venture investing having previously managed the €150 million AV8 Ventures fund and Qualcomm’s Venture Capital group in Europe.
KEY PEOPLE
CO-OWNERS AND PARTNERS
Ian Thomlinson Chairman
Formerly SVP Global BD, GSK
Jason Mellad CEO
Formerly CEO, Cambridge Epigenetics
Ewan Kirk Chairman Miles Kirby CEO
Co-founder & CEO, Cantab Capital Formerly Founder, AV8 Ventures
GOVERNANCE CIC is represented on the Board and Investment Committee
CMR SURGICAL
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TRANSFORMING SURGERY. FOR GOOD.
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
CMR Surgical (CMR) is on a mission to transform surgery for patients around the world, with innovative technology and extensive data collection that can improve surgical results. In only six years, CMR has gone from initial concept to Versius®, its next-generation surgical robotic system which has been used to perform over 1,000 procedures globally, including in the UK’s NHS. Versius® brings all the benefits of keyhole surgery to the patient while providing surgeons with greater dexterity, precision, and better visualisation than manual keyhole surgery, allowing them to perform more complex procedures. Fitting into virtually any operating room set-up and integrating seamlessly into existing workflows, Versius® enables hospitals to offer higher quality keyhole surgery that is cost-effective across the entire patient episode.
INVESTMENT THESIS
Differentiated, novel concept for next generation surgical robotic system protected by significant patent portfolio. Rapidly growing global market for medical robots driven by growing appreciation of the benefits of keyhole surgery.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
• Continued flow of Versius® orders with global sales expansion ongoing • New adoptions in key hospitals across Europe, India, the
Middle East and Australia • Strategic partnership formed with Gulf Drug, a medical equipment supplier in the United Arab Emirates, to increase commercial presence across the Middle East • Successful completion of 1,000+ procedures
FUTURE GROWTH PLANS
CMR’s ambition is to make the benefits of keyhole surgery available to everyone who needs it by building the world’s best medical robotic system and making it available at an affordable price. Building on its incredibly strong technical and corporate foundation, the company is looking to rapidly ramp up manufacturing and deployment in its existing markets while expanding its geographical spread beyond its current core markets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The company will continue to invest heavily in R&D as well as manufacturing and commercial capability to deliver the optimal surgeon experience. In order to achieve these goals, the company will need to continually focus on recruiting new talent across the world and developing its fantastic existing team. The board will need to remain constructive, challenging and supportive and encourage the company never to lose its entrepreneurial spirit that has delivered so much in such a short period of time. CARRYING VALUE
£129.9M
EQUITY HOLDING 8.7%
CMR Surgical has grown rapidly over the past few years with Versius, our nextgeneration surgical robotic system, now being used in hospitals across the world to transform the way keyhole surgery is performed. Our success is in no small part thanks to CIC, who has always had the long-term vision to support CMR. Since its initial investment, CIC has continued to support our growth and has always shared in our mission to transform surgery, for good.
PER VERGARD NERSETH
CEO
INIVATA
OPERATIONAL REPORT CONTINUED
INIVATA IS TRANSFORMING THE LIVES OF CANCER PATIENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES THROUGH THE POWER OF LIQUID BIOPSY
CARRYING VALUE
£50.2M
EQUITY HOLDING 16.4%
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Inivata develops innovative liquid biopsy technology, which can unlock essential genomic information from a simple blood draw to guide and personalise cancer treatment, monitor response and detect relapse.
Inivata’s InVisionFirst®-Lung product is commercialised in the US by specialist oncology diagnostics company, NeoGenomics to improve the management of patients with lung cancer.
Inivata is partnering with pharmaceutical, biotechnology companies and commercial partners in a range of early and late stage cancer development programmes.
INVESTMENT THESIS
Through the measurement of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in blood, liquid biopsy is an increasingly important tool for optimising the management of cancer patients. The launch of a ctDNA next-generation sequencing liquid biopsy assay testing with results within seven calendar days allows for more rapid intervention.
Inivata’s patent-protected TamSeq technology underpins its product, RaDaR. This groundbreaking product is a highly sensitive, personalised test which will allow for the detection of residual disease in multiple tumour types, providing uniquely valuable insights into a patient’s disease state and ensuring early intervention with targeted medicines.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
• FDA grants breakthrough device designation for
Inivata’s RaDaR assay • Company presents data on RaDaR at AACR demonstrating 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity in detecting minimal residual disease in patient cohorts with head and neck cancer and early-stage breast cancer • NeoGenomics announces acquisition of Inivata
FUTURE GROWTH PLANS
Inivata will be focused on the continued development of leading liquid biopsy tests including RaDaR. The combined resources of Inivata and NeoGenomics are expected to accelerate RaDaR’s adoption by biopharma partners, and then drive a successful launch into the clinical setting.
The use of liquid biopsy has the potential to transform cancer care by providing clinicians with timely, accurate information about whether the disease may have recurred, allowing a window for intervention and the prospect of better outcomes.
CLIVE MORRIS
CEO
BICYCLE THERAPEUTICS
OPERATIONAL REPORT CONTINUED
WE DIDN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ADVANCE AGAINST CANCER. WE CREATED IT
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Bicycle Therapeutics was founded in 2009 to convert innovative Bicycles into transformative medicines for life-altering diseases. The proprietary phage display screening platform is based on novel science first conceived in the laboratory of Sir Greg Winter, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018 for pioneering work in phage display. Bicycle Therapeutics is a transatlantic company, headquartered in the vibrant life science cluster of Cambridge, UK, with key oncology functions and members of our leadership team located in the biotech hub of Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
INVESTMENT THESIS
The company is pioneering the development of bicyclic peptides, or Bicycles® – a unique therapeutic class, combining the pharmacological properties normally associated with a biologic with the manufacturing and pharmacokinetic advantages of a small molecule.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
• Clinical progress across internal oncology pipeline − BT1718 progressing in Cancer Research UK sponsored Phase IIa clinical trial − Phase I trial of BT5528 dosing within predicted therapeutic range; preliminary signs of anti-tumor activity observed, including a partial response − Enrolment in BT8009 is progressing in line with expectations as clinical sites outside the US continue to open − BT7480, a novel tumour-targeted immune cell agonist (TICA) is on track to be submitted for IND to the FDA in the second half of 2021 • Strong progress beyond oncology, including first patient dosed in Oxurion’s Phase II trial using a novel Bicycle®–based plasma kallikrein Inhibitor for the treatment of diabetic macular edema • The company had $195.9 million in cash at 31 March 2021 which is expected to provide financial runway through multiple clinical milestones and into 2024
FUTURE GROWTH PLANS
Bicycle Therapeutics aims to redefine what’s possible for people with cancer and other serious diseases by pioneering a new and differentiated class of innovative treatments.
The company has a robust proprietary pipeline focused on developing novel oncology therapeutics and has multiple partnerships in place to pursue indications beyond oncology.
CARRYING VALUE £37.9M
EQUITY HOLDING 7.5%
Despite the challenges presented by 2020, we made significant progress against our objectives. We remain confident in our ability to achieve our near-term milestones, which should help enable our vision of pioneering the development of novel therapies for patients suffering from cancer and other serious diseases.
KEVIN LEE
CEO
PRAGMATIC SEMICONDUCTOR
OPERATIONAL REPORT CONTINUED
CREATE MORE
CIC has been a vital partner for our business during the development, installation and commissioning of our first FlexLogIC system and launch of our first commercial products. Their understanding of deep tech companies has allowed them to support us effectively on this journey. Now our technology is creating electronic solutions that would never have been considered using traditional silicon paradigms, enabling innovators around the world to rapidly take creative ideas from concept to reality.
SCOTT WHITE
CEO
CARRYING VALUE £24.7M
EQUITY HOLDING 32.3%
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
PragmatIC Semiconductor is a world leader in ultra-low-cost flexible electronics. Its flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs) are thinner than a human hair and can be invisibly embedded in objects, enabling innovators to create novel solutions to everyday problems that are not practical with conventional electronics.
Designers can create their own application-specific flexible devices using FlexIC Foundry® service at a fraction of the cost and time required for traditional silicon circuits, opening up multiple new markets. FlexICs are manufactured on a revolutionary FlexLogIC® production system, a highly scalable manufacturing model for cost-effective high-volume production, achieved with orders of magnitude lower capital investment and operating cost compared to a traditional silicon IC fab.
INVESTMENT THESIS
Proven technology based on extensive fundamental research.
A series of markets where the technology is a good fit. Substantial potential for RFID where a lower cost product could expand the market by an order of magnitude, addressing diverse verticals such as healthcare, logistics, retail and gaming.
FlexIC Foundry® opens up the potential for a wide range of market applications beyond RFID and will create multiple new markets that would never have been considered with conventional electronics.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
• Secured a £1.3 million contract from UK Government
Sustainable Innovation Fund for a state-of-the-art recycling scheme based on PragmatIC’s ultra-low-cost NFC technology • Raised £13 million of additional funding to accelerate manufacturing optimisation and new product development • Appointed Erik Langaker as independent chair to complement its existing strong board of directors
FUTURE GROWTH PLANS
PragmatIC’s vision is to embed its technology in a trillion smart objects over the coming decade. This could be achieved just within the RFID market – it is already projected to reach 100 billion items annually by 2028, with customers and analysts alike anticipating the potential for over 10x this scale with PragmatIC’s technology. FlexIC-based RFID is already being adopted in multiple market segments addressing key worldwide challenges, for example in healthcare (NHS), pharma (Schreiner MediPharm), waste management (UK Government) and sustainability (major consumer goods brands). Beyond RFID, customised functionality from the FlexIC Foundry® has even greater potential. Supporting this vision, PragmatIC is planning to deploy a global network of over 100 FlexLogIC® lines, for efficient just-in-time manufacturing close to where their products are being used. FlexLogIC® democratises semiconductor production, making innovative electronic solutions readily accessible to businesses of all sizes across a diverse range of industries.
CONGENICA
OPERATIONAL REPORT CONTINUED
ENABLING GENOMIC MEDICINE
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Congenica is a global digital health company revolutionising the way diseases are characterised and diagnosed with world leading software that enables the rapid analysis and interpretation of complex genomic data to improve wellbeing and disease management and empower health professionals to provide lifechanging answers for patients and their families. Based in Cambridge, UK and born out of pioneering research from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the NHS, Congenica has a global footprint supporting leading diagnostic laboratories, academic medical centres and biopharmaceutical companies and is the exclusive Clinical Decision Support partner for the NHS Genomic Medicine Service.
INVESTMENT THESIS
The clinical and economic evidence for the use of genomic medicine to characterise disease and diagnose patients is very compelling, reducing diagnostic odysseys to improve health outcomes and generating value for health systems.
Congenica is able to reduce the working time for interpretation of complex genomic data by >95%, enabling reporting in as little as five minutes, increasing case throughput and diagnostic accuracy to improve outcomes for patients and their families. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
• Multiple commercial partnerships established, including − Sanford Health, one of the largest health systems in the US − Kaiserslautern Institute of Immunology and Genetics, Germany
• Collaboration initiated with Gabriel Precision
Oncology to develop an automated somatic cancer clinical interpretation software platform • Executive team strengthened with appointments of new CFO and CCO • Successful raise of a $53 million Series C round
FUTURE GROWTH PLANS
Congenica will continue to focus on enabling genomic medicine by transforming complex genomic data into actionable information through its software platforms and data systems, delivering a future where clinical genomics is fully integrated into healthcare.
The company’s software platform has been focused on rare disease to date, and the business is seeking to leverage its expertise and reputation to expand into all major clinical genomics markets, starting with somatic cancer.
CARRYING VALUE £16.3M
EQUITY HOLDING 17.6%
Congenica is delivering a future where clinical genomics is fully integrated into healthcare. Without the support of CIC, we would not have been able to accelerate the development of our market leading software for rapid and accurate analysis of complex genomic data to enable rare genetic diagnostics at scale. Their long-term vision to support Congenica has helped us establish ourselves in over 20 countries worldwide and provide life-changing answers for patients and their families and generate significant value for healthcare services internationally.
DAVID ATKINS
CEO
SELDON TECHNOLOGIES
OPERATIONAL REPORT CONTINUED
BRINGING THE POWER OF DEVOPS TO MACHINE LEARNING
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Seldon Technologies was founded in 2014 with a simple yet ambitious aim: accelerate the adoption of machine learning to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems. Since then, the company has raised over £10 million, deployed more than 1.5 million models, and partnered with industry leaders including Google, Red Hat, IBM, NVIDIA and AWS.
Seldon democratises technologies that were previously the preserve of tech giants – and puts them in everyone’s hands through its popular open source repositories.
INVESTMENT THESIS
The market for MLOps is fairly nascent but is becoming increasingly relevant as more enterprises are including AI in their operations. COVID-19 has accelerated AI adoption and as a result MLOps has become a core building block of AI strategy in enterprises.
Seldon provides innovative solutions to better manage, serve and scale ML models built on popular ML frameworks, either onpremises or in public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
• £7.1 million Series A fundraise in 2020 co-led by CIC and
AlbionVC • Over 1.5 million machine learning models deployed to date • Named one of Gartner’s ‘Cool Vendors’ in AI technologies and one of the AI100 ranking that showcases 100 of the most promising AI companies worldwide • Now deployed at four large pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson • Partnered with industry leaders such as Red Hat, Hewlett
Packard Enterprise and Data Reply
FUTURE GROWTH PLANS
Seldon has recently appointed its first CFO, Head of People and VP Product and is building out the leadership team with VPs of Marketing, Inside Sales, Customer Success and Alliances. These strategic hires will drive forward ambitious growth plans to double the company’s headcount by the end of the year, while helping to maintain and strengthen the firm’s first-class company culture. More specifically, the company is expanding its technical team and establishing a Cambridge R&D office to tap into the ecosystem and attract talented ML engineers and data scientists.
CARRYING VALUE* £2.6M
EQUITY HOLDING* 13.6%
We’re enabling the rapid deployment of machine learning models so that organisations can tackle their most important challenges. Essentially, whatever AI means to you – we work to make it possible. CIC’s deep tech expertise and commercial acumen is the ideal support for our mission.
ALEX HOUSLEY
FOUNDER AND CEO
* Fund II interest
Cambridge Innovation Capital Hauser Forum 3 Charles Babbage Road Cambridge CB3 0GT
www.cic.vc +44 (0)1223 764875
