Covid-19 has made investment prospects bleak in many sectors, but a new report by Ceuta Group reveals confidence in consumer health, wellness and personal care remains high despite economic turmoil.

Ceuta Group’s report ‘The Enduring Appeal Of Investment In Healthcare & Wellness Consumer Brands’ argues that health and personal care is one of the few industries that is “pandemic proof”.

Epidarex Capital, a transatlantic life science venture firm, announces that it has closed Epidarex Capital III UK LP at £102.1 million. The Fund will build new life science companies based on world-class research and innovation from emerging hubs across the UK, including spinouts from highly regarded universities. Typical initial investments will range from £2 million to £5 million. 

Agamon, a healthcare AI startup, announced today a $3M seed round, led by MMC Ventures, with the participation of InHealth Ventures, Seedcamp, and Bayer G4A. Agamon is already working with leading U.S hospitals including Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health System, Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System, and other hospitals outside the US. Agamon plans to use the funding to scale their deployments with more hospitals globally and further train the AI and widen its clinical spectrum.

Ikarovec, which is developing novel gene therapies to treat major ophthalmic indications, has been awarded £458,740 by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to accelerate development of its wet-form age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) product. The grant, made under the UKI2S Innovate Accelerator Programme (1), is being matched by investment made into the company by LifeArc, Parkwalk and UKI2S in its recent seed round. This new funding for Ikarovec’s early stage wAMD product provides additional resource with which to accelerate its development, while the seed funds are being used primarily to advance the company’s lead programme in diabetic macular edema.

Zelluna Immunotherapy, a T Cell Receptor (TCR) cell therapy company, has completed a fundraise to fully focus on the development of its proprietary TCR guided Natural Killer (NK) cell therapy platform (TCR-NK) for the treatment of cancers.  

A total of approximately EUR 7.5 million has been raised in equity financing and public grants. Zelluna’s strategy is to concentrate on the development of TCR-NK cell therapy products based on its proprietary technology platform, where TCRs are functionally expressed in NK cells. The combination of the broad target range of TCRs with the inherent anti-tumor activity and allogeneic nature of NK cells could offer novel, safe, and effective “off the shelf” cell therapy treatments for solid cancer patients. 

Spectrum Logic has been awarded an Innovate UK grant to develop a novel Western Blot scanner to be used in the first instance for Covid19 antibody testing. The project is entitled ‘Low Cost, High Throughput Western Blot Antibody Detection Device for Those Already Infected with COVID-19’.

Qkine, a specialist developer and manufacturer of proteins for stem cell, organoid and regenerative medicine applications, has closed a £1.5 million series A investment round to accelerate the global scale-up of its commercial operations and make key hires to its leadership team. The funding round attracted support from a wealth of leading life science funds and angel investors, including Parkwalk, a London-based firm that backs world-changing technologies emerging from the UK’s leading universities, who led the round; Jonathan Milner, serial entrepreneur and founder of Abcam; Martlet Capital, a Cambridge-based investor with a growing portfolio of innovative life science companies; and the fast-growing o2h ventures Human Health EIS fund.

Prime Advantage Capital Partners has participated in a fundraise for North-East based impact sensor developer HP1 Technologies.

NodThera, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing a new class of medicines that inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome to treat diseases driven by chronic inflammation, has secured $55 million (£44 million) in a Series B financing. NodThera’s lead candidate, NT-0167, is being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers.

Navenio, the healthcare scale-up whose location-based technology has been shown to double the throughput of hospital teams, has received c. £50k from the UK government and Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, as part of a government boost for cutting-edge companies. 

Sarissa Biomedical , a Coventry-based biotech business has raised £1.2m for a new hand-held device that allows paramedics and emergency doctors to quickly diagnose patients who are having a stroke.  Sarissa Biomedical has secured funds from a consortium of investors including the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, Mercia’s EIS funds, and private investors including Wren Capital and the Wood Family.

The healthcare scale-up behind a location-based platform which has been shown to double team throughput, has announced £9m in series A funding led QBN Capital.