For release on RNS: 07.00, 22 June 2023
NetScientific plc
("NetScientific" or the "Company")
Vortex Biotech Holdings Ltd £3.2 million Fundraising
NetScientific Plc (AIM: NSCI), the investment and commercialisation group with an international portfolio of innovative life science, sustainability and industrial technology companies, is delighted to announce the completion of a new £3.2 million investment round in its portfolio company, Vortex Biotech Holdings Limited ("Vortex"), led by EMV Capital ("EMVC").
Vortex is focused on developing its position in the multi-billion dollar oncology liquid biopsy market.
Vortex's core technology allows for the capture and isolation of intact, label-free and pure Circulating Tumour Cells ("CTCs") from blood samples. Its mission is to be the innovation leader in CTC capture technology that together with a range of downstream workflows help to enumerate and characterise the CTCs to improve therapeutic decision making and save lives. This exciting area will provide researchers and clinicians with access to critical insights from whole cancer cells that underpin one of the main causes of metastasis, treatment resistance and disease recurrence, contributing to a major shift in how cancer can be treated and monitored.
Alongside the new investors into Vortex, NetScientific converted its £0.4 million loan into equity. Following completion of the fundraising, the total equity holding of NetScientific in Vortex is now 24.98%, which equates to a post-investment fair value of £2.8 million, an increase of 300% from the £0.7 million reported as at 31 December 2022. In addition, following the introduction of investors to Vortex by EMVC (the wholly-owned subsidiary, and the corporate finance and venture capital arm, of NetScientific), the NetScientific capital under advisory with Vortex is 13.90% of the issued share capital.
Paul Jones, CEO of Vortex, commented:
"We are thrilled to welcome this new investment, enabled by EMV Capital's fund-raising support. It helps us accelerate our plans for a breakthrough in how CTCs can be used to inform oncology treatment and monitoring. Precision diagnostics in combination with innovations around targeted therapies are enabling remarkable progress in personalised medicine. We're determined that Vortex will play a major role in this space - in the short term at the interface to biopharma and in the long term, in partnership with clinical health systems worldwide."
Dr Ilian Iliev, CEO of NetScientific added:
"This transaction clearly showcases our unique ability to combine a capital light investment approach with value creation support for promising businesses. Following support by our value creation services and fundraising team, the company is now ready to accelerate its growth in the UK and US. With this new investment, Vortex is well positioned to advance its presence in the multi-billion dollar oncology liquid biopsy market."
The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Ilian Iliev, Chief Executive Officer of the Company.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE UK VERSION OF REGULATION (EU) NO 596/2014 WHICH IS PART OF UK LAW BY VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018, AS AMENDED. UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT VIA A REGULATORY INFORMATION SERVICE, THIS INSIDE INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
-Ends-
For more information, please contact:
NetScientific
Ilian Iliev, CEO Via Belvedere Communications
WH Ireland (NOMAD, Financial Adviser and Broker)
Chris Fielding / Darshan Patel / Enzo Aliaj +44 (0)20 7220 1666
Belvedere Communications
John West / Llew Angus +44 (0) 203 008 6867
Email: nsci@belvederepr.com
About NetScientific
NetScientific plc (AIM: NSCI) is an investment and commercialisation group with an international portfolio of innovative life science, sustainability and technology companies.
NetScientific identifies, invests in, and builds high growth companies in the UK and internationally. The company adds value through the proactive management of its portfolio, progressing to key value inflection points, and delivering investment returns through partial or full liquidity events.
NetScientific differentiates itself by employing a capital-light investment approach, making judicial use of its balance sheet and syndicating investments through its wholly owned VC subsidiary, EMV Capital. The group secures a mixture of direct equity stakes and carried interest stakes in its portfolio of companies, creating a lean structure that can support a large portfolio.
NetScientific is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and is admitted to trading on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange.
About Vortex
Vortex, which has benefited from c.$38.5 million in historical investments in the US and Europe, has developed a "no touch" microfluidic chip technology which captures intact, label-free and pure circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from blood, with high yields. These CTCs can then be analysed using a range of downstream workflows that help characterise them. This will provide researchers and clinicians with access to critical insights from whole cancer cells that underpin one of the main causes of metastasis, treatment resistance and disease recurrence.
Originally a spin-out from University of California, Los Angeles, Vortex is now dually based in the UK and the Bay Area, US. As the next phase of growth, Vortex will set up CTC Centres of Excellence with an associated lab services business to serve biopharma customers. This will help deliver a step change in the use of CTCs to inform oncology treatment and monitoring. Longer term, Vortex will look to build on academic and industry engagement to open an interface into clinical health systems around the world.
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