Pioneer Group and Oxford Properties secure leading life sciences investment firm Syncona Investment Management Ltd at Victoria House

Pioneer Group and Oxford Properties have announced that Syncona Investment Management Ltd (SIML), a leading life science investment manager, is moving into Victoria House, a leading hub for life sciences in London. 

Developed by Pioneer Group and Oxford Properties, Victoria House in Bloomsbury, London continues to build one of London’s most inspiring life science communities, where an ever-growing number of pioneering organisations are driving innovation across science, biopharmaceuticals, gene therapies, synthetic biology and AI.

SIML is the investment manager for Syncona Limited, a FTSE 250 life sciences investor with over £1 billion in net assets. The SIML team actively manages a maturing portfolio of leading life sciences companies, which are diversified across development stage, modality and therapeutic area. The £866.7 million life sciences portfolio spans 15 businesses all seeking to deliver transformational treatments to patients. 

The move to Victoria House reflects SIML’s long-term commitment to supporting breakthrough science in the UK, as it aims to raise a new private fund to continue to create, build and scale globally competitive companies. 

Syncona will also bring its accelerator, Slingshot Therapeutics, to Victoria House. Slingshot is focused on accumulating a pipeline of early-stage life science programmes, identified from world-leading academic institutions, and accelerating their development towards the clinic.

Miranda Knaggs, Corporate Development Director at Pioneer, said:

Welcoming SIML to Victoria House is a transformative moment for our life sciences community. SIML’s unique model of building companies from the ground up perfectly complements our ecosystem. By positioning its team and the Slingshot Accelerator within touching distance of London’s medical and academic powerhouses, we are creating a frictionless environment where innovators can seamlessly access the long-term capital required to scale breakthrough science from bench to bedside.

SIML joins a rapidly expanding roster of cutting-edge organisations at Victoria House, building on Pioneer and Oxford Properties’ significant momentum over the last 12 months. Current tenants at Victoria House include clinical-stage biotechnology firms Draig Therapeutics, focused on neuropsychiatric treatments, and AAVantgarde Bio, specialising in retinal therapies; innovative life sciences companies including BioOrbit, a space manufacturing startup, AmpliSynth, an automated DNA synthesis startup, and Deep Mirror, an AI drug-design firm; and leading biotechnology accelerators Molecule to Medicine and BioInnovation Institute (BII), which chose Victoria House as its first UK and international hub. Together, they form a growing community of founders, scientists and scale-ups shaping the future of health and life sciences from the heart of London.

Jay Drexler, Oxford Properties’ Head of Asset Management, Office, Retail & Life Science Europe, added:

SIML is a leading venture capital fund manager that perfectly complements the Victoria House ecosystem by increasing innovators’ access to funding so that they can get their ideas to market. Adding SIML to our tenant roster builds on the outstanding growth and success Victoria House has already seen this year so far and further reinforces its central role in supporting the growth and continued development of London’s life science ecosystem.

Fiona Fernandez, Head of Operations at SIML, said:

We are pleased to be joining the life sciences community at Victoria House. Its collaborative spaces and the events programme it hosts will give us valuable exposure to investors, founders and innovators.

We are also pleased to bring Slingshot, our early-stage accelerator, to Victoria House, putting us among early-stage companies and founders, with laboratory space readily accessible in central London, a natural fit for backing science at this stage. We see real potential for the building's ecosystem to complement our portfolio over time and the team are excited for our next stage.

For more information, visit www.thepioneergroup.com