Finance Yorkshire boosts life sciences business
Finance Yorkshire’s successful track record for investing in early stage businesses continues with the AIM listing of another of its investee companies.
Based in York, OptiBiotix Health is developing products to tackle obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes with the potential to improve lives worldwide.
Prior to the company being listed on AIM via a reverse takeover, Finance Yorkshire invested £520,000 from its Seedcorn fund to support OptiBiotix Health in the development of its programmes and human studies.
The company raised £3.3m via the reverse takeover and is using the funds to develop the intellectual property of OptiBiotix Health, to commercialise OptiBiotix products and for general working capital purposes.
Earlier this year, cleaning technology company Xeros, based in Rotherham, was listed on AIM after a series of Seedcorn fund investments by Finance Yorkshire.
Finance Yorkshire Chief Executive Alex McWhirter said: “OptiBiotix is another great example of the value that Finance Yorkshire brings to new and early stage technology and knowledge-based businesses. We invest having recognised the potential for high growth in these types of businesses and it is rewarding to see OptiBiotix in such a strong position within two years of its launch.”
OptiBiotix was founded by Stephen O’Hara, ChiefExecutive, and David Evans who is Chairman. Mr O’Hara said: “Finance Yorkshire’s initial investment in the business came at a vital time for us and provided us with much-needed support. Our work provides us with a huge opportunity to address many widely experienced diseases and a chance to significantly improve lives worldwide.”
To date, Finance Yorkshire has made 673 investments totalling over £85.5 million.
Finance Yorkshire is supported financially by the European Union. It has attracted £30million investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme, £15million from UK Government and £45million match funding from the European Investment Bank.
For more information about Finance Yorkshire, please visit www.finance-yorkshire.com or call 0845 649 0000.
About OptiBiotox
OptiBiotix was formed in March 2012 to develop compounds which modify the human microbiome - the collective genome of the microbes in the body - to prevent and manage human disease.
The aim of OptiBiotix is to discover and develop microbial strains, compounds and formulations which modulate the human microbiome and can be used as food ingredients, supplements or active compounds for the prevention and management of human metabolic diseases, examples of which include obesity, cholesterol and lipid distribution and diabetes. For further information go to www.optibiotix.com
Note: this news article is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire