SomaServe successful closing of £2m series A funding round

30/03/2021 Cambridge UK – SomaServe Ltd, a pioneer in nanomedicines for crossing biological barriers today announced that it has completed a highly successful, oversubscribed Series A funding of £2.1m. SomaServe has also secured further IP and global commercial rights to PolyNaut platform technology (the bionic nanoparticle) from UCLB. The company now has exclusive PolyNaut rights in all indications.

The funding round was jointly led by Meltwind and Origin Capital and had follow on investment from all existing investors including Abcam and o2H Ventures. The success of this funding round is testament to the progress made with collaborators in evaluating PolyNaut for penetrating the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the launch by Abcam of PolyNaut-Dye products.

Dr Fran Crawford, CEO of SomaServe, said “We are continuing to execute our plan for PolyNaut to enable product development programmes around the world with partners. It is clear that that there is much appetite for our technology which both penetrates biological barriers and targets specific cells. This funding will enable the company to expand into commercial facilities and upscale the number of projects and collaborations we work on.”

David Ford of Arrowfield Capital, Chairman of SomaServe and lead investor for the 2019 funding round, added “ We are delighted with the support from the new and existing investors, which attests to the headway we have made since spinning out of UCL. These funds will allow us to continue the growth and expansion of the business, to take advantage of the many opportunities we see to further the adoption of the PolyNaut Technology.”

##END##

About SomaServe
Founded in 2018, SomaServe was spun out of UCL with the mission to build a uniquely positioned polymer nanomedicine company exploiting PolyNaut Technology to image live cells and improve the therapeutic viability of molecules with poor pharmacokinetic and chemical properties.

SomaServe pioneers new therapies for crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and other biological barriers- targeting neuronal, malignant and immune system tissues using its innovative, leading-edge technology PolyNaut (a bionic nanoparticle vesicle). Using proprietary, phenotypic targeting algorithms, cells of choice can be forensically targeted with ligands selected to bind to specific receptors expressed on the cell surface. SomaServe works across a wide range of modalities, including nucleic acids, antibodies, proteins, peptides and small molecules.

SomaServe collaborates with pharma, biotech and non-pharma companies using PolyNaut for bespoke drug discovery and product development, enhancing promising proprietary molecules. The company’s focus is to improve the therapeutic viability of potential therapeutic molecules with poor pharmacokinetic and chemical properties.

PolyNaut cell delivery technology can also be successfully employed to enhance live cell imaging. The resulting PolyNaut-Dye suite have been developed to image live cells in vitro. PolyNaut-Dyes have the benefit of significantly reduced cytotoxicity compared to industry standard cell imaging reagents. Cells under test can remain functional and viable for periods of up to fourteen days, giving researchers in industry and academia more time for image analysis. PolyNaut Dyes are marketed by Abcam.

For more information see https://somaserve.com/