OXFORD NANOPORE EYES LONDON LISTING LATER THIS YEAR

One of the UK’s most exciting tech companies based at Oxford Science Park, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, is to begin preparing for a potential initial public offering.

Oxford Nanopore, originally spun out of Oxford University in 2005, was declared a “unicorn” (a company valued at more than $1 billion), in 2018. Last October it announced its latest fundraise of £84.4 million in new capital.

In a statement it said that while the timing of a potential IPO is dependent on market conditions and other matters not fully within the company’s control, at this stage the company expects that the IPO would occur in the second half of 2021 on the London Stock Exchange.

Oxford Nanopore’s ambition is to be a global company that enables the analysis of anything by anyone, anywhere.

The year 2020 was transformative for Oxford Nanopore as it helped scientists around the world sequence the Covid-19 virus, helping continual surveillance. Around a fifth of the SARS-CoV-2 virus genomes in the global database GISAID were generated on one of its devices, with nanopore data uploaded by scientists from more than 85 countries.

AND Digital secures £8 million funding from BGF

Gloucester Services has been named Britain’s best service station (while Bridgwater in Somerset has been ranked the worst) according to a new survey from consumer champion Which?

Gloucester received the top score of 86 per cent, scoring five stars for cleanliness, range and quality of its shops and food outlets, as well as its range of facilities.

Gloucester M5 Services Northbound opened to the public in 2014, followed by the launch of its sister

Southbound services the following year. Located between Junctions 11a and 12 near Brookthorpe, this is the latest accolade in a raft of national and local awards won by the services since they opened.

Dedicated to local food, farming and the surrounding community, the services’ farm shops are packed with locally produced food, and the cafés serve homemade dishes created from locally sourced produce.

The services work with more than 200 South West suppliers.

Reading and Maidenhead-based tech consultancy company AND Digital has secured an additional £8 million in equity investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF). This follows an initial £11 million worth of funding from BGF at the start of 2020.

BGF’s fresh capital will be used to fasttrack expansion in the Benelux region in Europe, as well as further offices (known as ‘clubs’) in Scotland and Manchester.

In addition, the company will focus on growing existing clubs in Leeds and London. AND Digital will also invest in increasing its cloud engineering capabilities, aiming to add 300-400 new high-paid digital jobs.

Founded in 2014 by Paramjit Uppal, CEO, AND Digital’s clients now include British Airways, Premier Inn, Costa Coffee and the People’s Postcode Lottery, as well as disruptive start-ups and scale-ups like Gousto (a unicorn) – plus government departments including HM Courts & Tribunal Service.