
7 March 2016
GM&C Life Sciences Fund announces first investments
The GM&C Life Sciences Fund has announced that it has concluded its first two investments in February. The Fund, which is managed by Catapult Ventures and targets exciting life science investments in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire regions, has invested in Manchester-based start-up Biorelate and Pronec, which is based in Alderley Park.
Dr Gareth King, Investment Manager of the Fund commented: “I’m delighted that we have successfully completed two seed investments in very exciting innovative companies. Pronec is a cancer therapy company and Biorelate provides biomedical knowledge databases. Both companies are recent start-ups but have already made excellent progress. What we liked about Pronec was the deep scientific knowledge of the founders, which is based on decades of investigative research. Biorelate has done particularly well to generate revenue so early into its existence, having spent a year in a beta phase commercialising the founder’s PhD work at the University of Manchester on big data computational analysis.”
Professor Hilmar Warenius, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Pronec said “I’m extremely grateful to Catapult for recognising the therapeutic potential of Pronec's different approach to cancer biology. I look forward to developing new drugs for the benefit of patients, their families and society.”
Dr Daniel Jamieson, Chief Executive Officer of Biorelate said “I’m very happy that we’ve been able to secure this investment, marking an important strategic milestone in our progress. As well as the capital available, it was important to us that the investors had a deep knowledge of the industry and we’ve already been highly impressed by the support and guidance offered. No doubt the investment will be pivotal in enabling us to take the next steps forward and we’re now focused on spawning new and innovative projects to add to our growing portfolio of excellent results.”
The fund has seen a large number of companies and is progressing investment opportunities in a wide range of life science companies both already in the region and those attracted from elsewhere by the world-leading science, facilities and funding available in Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
Photo from left to right: Professor Hilmar Warenius (Chief Medical Officer and Director of Research at Pronec), Dr Gunter Schmidt (CEO Pronec) and Dr Gareth King (Investment Manager, Catapult Ventures).