Axol Bioscience Ltd. announces that it has raised £3.2 million GBP (circa $4.2 million USD) in the extension of its previous funding round, bringing the total raised to £7 million GBP (circa $9.2 million USD).
The round was led by existing investors Calculus Capital, Par Equity and Scottish Enterprise, with support from Meltwind, including early investor Dr Jonathan Milner.
The funds will be used to bring new human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) products and service solutions for cardiac, neuroscience, and immune cell modeling to the drug discovery and screening markets, including Axol’s recently developed comprehensive in vitro proarrhythmia assay (CiPA)-validated human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Funding will enable Axol to further optimise cell culture quality and iPSC manufacturing capabilities at its Edinburgh, UK, site based at the Roslin Institute, as well as support recruitment efforts to expand its commercial team. It will also facilitate the continued development of the company’s digital platform.
Liam Taylor, CEO, Axol Bioscience, commented: “At Axol, we’re setting a new standard in iPSC quality and manufacture. This investment enables us to continue to build and apply our quality-driven mindset to develop robust, reliable, ready-to-use iPSCs for pre-clinical R&D and drug development, as well as to focus on the expansion of our commercial team.”
Dr Thomas Stratford, interim chairman, Axol Bioscience, added: “We are delighted to have secured additional funding from our existing investors in this oversubscribed round. This reflects both the potential of Axol’s iPSC technology and products, and the unrivalled expertise of our team. This investment reinforces our ongoing mission to develop the high-quality, validated human cell biology tools needed to drive innovation in medical research and drug discovery.”
Dr Jonathan Milner, investor and CEO, Meltwind, said: “Axol is well positioned in the global iPSC market to support advances in drug screening and discovery. We look forward to the Company’s future iPSC product developments, poised to provide more physiologically relevant and consistent human disease models and screening assays to, ultimately, progress next-generation therapies for neuroscience and cardiac diseases to the clinic, faster.”