Plasticell (United Kingdom) - Dec 2007

unquote
01 December 2007

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The Capital Fund, managed by YFM Venture Finance Ltd, has led an investment of £690,000 into Plasticell, a company that is developing stem cell and drug screening products, taking a minority stake in the company. The fund contributed £250,000 to the financing, split between an equity investment and a convertible loan, with the remainder coming from existing private investors. It was attracted to the deal largely because of the commercial and scientific expertise of Plasticell founder Dr Yen Choo, who has previous experience of founding and successfully exiting a biotechnology company and has recently been appointed to the Steering Committee for the UK Stem Cell Bank and for the Use of Stem Cell Lines, the body which oversees all UK stem cell research. The new capital will be used in on-going product development, with a further round of funding expected to continue the growth of the business within the next 18 months. This latest funding round follows on from a £1.1m grant from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Technology Programme in January 2007.

Company

Plasticell is a specialist developer of innovative new products in the field of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Stem Cells are the primal cells found in all multi-cellular organisms that retain the ability to renew themselves through cell division and are considered to hold the key to the treatment of many major diseases. The company has developed and holds the exclusive intellectual property rights to a Combinational Cell Culture™ product known as Combicult™, a sophisticated method of directing the development of stem cells towards pre-defined tissue types. Combicult™ uses a process that speeds up traditional trial and error experiments by performing them in parallel with many thousands of possible combinations and tested outcomes, potentially generating substantial cost savings for pharmaceutical firms, which need to develop particular tissue samples for use in drug testing. Plasticell, which is based at the Imperial Bio-incubator in London, has achieved significant recognition in the scientific community and is advised by several top international scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners. The business was established in 2002 and currently employs 4 staff.

People

Ian Cameron and Sylvia Scott led the investment for The Capital Fund. Dr Yen Choo is the founder and CEO of Plasticell.

Advisers

Company - Taylor Wessing, Matthew Burman (Legal)Equity - Ithaka Life Sciences, Dr Paul Rogers (Technical/IT Advice)Equity - Vincent Sykes & Higman, John Davies (Legal)

Sourced from: UK & Ireland unquote" 359 (Dec 2007)