UMI3 Ltd showcases innovations to Catapult Ventures

Investors meet University of Manchester academic entrepreneurs

On 3rd October UMI3 Ltd held an investor day with Catapult Ventures, who manage the Greater Manchester & Cheshire Life Sciences Fund, to hear from the CEOs of two of their portfolio companies and to showcase a selection of early-stage University spin-out propositions. The event took place at the University’s Innovation Centre (UMIC) on Grafton Street.

After an introduction to the Catapult Ventures Team by Dr Vijay Barathan and a presentation on early-stage venture capital funding to an invited audience of 50, we had the chance to hear first-hand from the CEOs of two University spin-outs in the Catapult GM&C Life Sciences Portfolio: Tony Travers from Manchester Imaging Ltd and Dr Elizabeth Crawford from Clin-e-cal, finishing with an interactive Q&A session.

This was followed by an Entrepreneurs Showcase Session where five life sciences propositions, who are looking for funding, presented their business cases to Catapult Ventures in an open pitch session, with a prize awarded for the best idea & delivery. 

Presenting were BactiFlocc (Dr Kate Thompson), Ab-Nomics (Professor Ian Hampson), Quantima (Dr Hojjat Azadbakht), ManTRa (Dr Darren Roberts) and Complement Therapeutics (Dr Simon Clark).

The winner was announced by Catapult Ventures’ Dr Gareth King during networking and refreshments which took place in UMIC’s newly opened Core Technology Facility Atrium.

Complement Therapeutics’ Dr Simon Clark received the prize of 6 months office space for two people in UMIC’s new state of the art co-working area.

Dr Simon Clark comments: “This is a huge honour and great surprise! Getting feedback from the audience and the team from Catapult Ventures was very helpful. Some really useful ideas were raised and will certainly change the way we move forward.”

Dr Vijay Barathan, Life Science Partner with Catapult Ventures, said: “We were delighted to work with UMIP to put this event together and thank them for the effort taken into organising the day. The Catapult team were delighted with the quality of the presentations and the level of engagement of the audience.”

Yvonne Loughlin, Head of UMIC, comments: “I am excited to have Complement Therapeutics as the first tenant in our modern bespoke shared working facility and I hope that the support and guidance provided in an area designed to encourage collaboration and networking will help ensure a successful future for them. Simon’s was confident and engaging simplifying and explaining the concept perfectly he was a worthy winner. I look forward to being involved with future competitions and ensuring continued support for North West start-ups and entrepreneurs.”