Member Article

North West fund for Biomedical invests further £1.1m in companies

Over the past two months, SPARK Impact, manager of The North West Fund for Biomedical, has invested a further £1.1m in follow on funding into its existing portfolio companies and has now invested more than £25m.

The North West Fund for Biomedical is a sub-fund of The North West Fund, a £155m fund jointly financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank and is available to invest in small and medium sized businesses in the North West of England.

One of the companies to receive follow on investment was ASep Healthcare, developers of devices for reducing hospital acquired infections, including the disposable tourniquet strip.

The follow on investment of £300k will allow the business to enhance and protect its IP portfolio, further product lines and to continue to expand its distributor base and sales initiatives.

Merseyside based Stuff of Life, trading under the name ‘Secret Saviours’, recently launched its revolutionary anti stretch mark underwear for pregnant women and has received a further £250k investment.

Meanwhile ESP Technology, based in Cheshire, has secured more than £150k.

Other companies that have received funding include, Harvard Healthcare, which received £200k; Manchester based Alchemy Pharmatech received £160k and Perfectus Biomed, based at Sci-Tech Daresbury has raised a further £175k jointly from SPARK Impact and Midven.

Investment director at SPARK Impact, Dr Andy Round, said: “We are delighted to continue to strengthen the life sciences sector within the North West by providing these promising companies with follow on funding to continue their development.

“Funding like this is vital to these companies to give them the opportunity to continue to grow.

“The sector is ripe with innovative companies like these -what we need to see is continued support to allow them to really thrive.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .