Magnitude Biosciences raises an extra £225,000 to expand

Chief Executive David Weinkove said ‘This investment from Northstar Ventures and Saker Capital is a big vote of confidence in the potential for Magnitude Biosciences to disrupt ageing research and drug discovery for age-related disease. It enables us to expand our team to provides services to worldwide academic and biotech research labs, who will benefit from our professional approach and novel technology’

Magnitude Biosciences offers a wide range of automated health related assays using the tiny nematode worm C. elegans, which ages within a week. Compared to traditional preclinical assays, the combination of innovative technology and know-how developed by Magnitude Biosciences offers significant improvements in time, costs, ethics, and both quantity and quality of data generated. Many compounds that slow ageing in mice also work in C. elegans, ensuring drug predictivity.

At the end of 2018, Magnitude Biosciences raised £150,000 in seed investment from Northstar Ventures and Saker Capital. This fund allowed the company to serve its first customers, validate its technology, and develop a range of automated assays. The follow-on investment will be used to expand both the number and scale of assays offered, increase revenues and grow the team. Magnitude aims to build on its first-year success by becoming a global gold standard service used as part of the drug discovery pipeline.

Alex Buchan from Northstar Ventures said ‘One of the things that attracted us to Magnitude in the first place was the multi-disciplinary team, bringing together biologists and physicists. From what we have seen during the past year, there is real potential in Magnitude to grow a significant business bringing high-quality jobs to the North East, which is why we have invested in this second round’.

Sean Nicolson from Saker Capital commented ‘Magnitude is well positioned to support the continued investment in research and drug discovery in the fields of ageing and age-related disease. Magnitude’s technology enables it to deliver a quick, consistent service with rich data analysis offering deep insights into the potential lifespan and healthspan effects of drug candidates. The funding round gives the team the opportunity to accelerate the rate of sales growth and to continue to develop the technology.’

For more information visit: http://magnitudebiosciences.com/

Press Contact
Dr David Weinkove, CEO Magnitude Biosciences Ltd
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 (0)191 334 1303

Editor’s notes:

Northstar Ventures Limited
Northstar Ventures is a venture capital and social investment firm based in the North East. We provide funding for innovative, scalable businesses and high impact social enterprises. We’ve been supporting entrepreneurs since 2004, seeking out strong teams with great ideas that will drive high growth, scalable businesses, and sustainable charities. As the North East’s leading early stage investor, we have invested over £100m into start-ups, early stage businesses and high impact social enterprises in the region. Our investment managers have a wealth of experience supporting new and growing businesses and bring commercial and operational experience, PhDs and MBAs, international careers and even a micro-business or two.

Information About The North East Fund
The North East Fund is a suite five venture capital and loan funds which was established in April 2018, to invest £120m in around 600 North East businesses in the period to March 2023. The fund managers provide business development advice and investment finance to small and medium sized enterprises based in the seven Local Authority areas of North East England: Northumberland, North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside, Gateshead Sunderland and County Durham. The programme encourages investment in and the commercialisation of new technologies, including low carbon technologies, as well as stimulating new business creation, private investment and entrepreneurialism in the North East, with a view to creating over 2,500 new jobs. The North East Fund has overall responsibility for the programme, which is delivered through five separate funds, each managed by independent, FCA regulated fund managers. Details of these, and up to date information on the progress of the programme, is available on The North East Fund’s website: www.northeastfund.org
The North East Fund has been established with funding from the North East of England European Regional Development Fund programme, the European Investment Bank and from returns on previous North East based, publicly supported investment funds. It is jointly owned by the seven North East local authorities

Information About the European Regional Development Fund
The North East Fund will receive up to £58,500,000 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.

Information About the European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will lend up to £60,000,000 to the North East Fund programme. The European Investment Bank is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. For more information, visit: http://www.eib.org/about/index.htm