The entrepreneur behind the £100m exit of OXGENE in 2021 has secured funding for his next venture.
Ryan Cawood (pictured, main image, second from right) founded biotechnology company OXGENE in 2011 and won backing from Mercia to turn it into one of the UK’s fastest growing companies.
OXGENE won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise before its sale to WuXi Advanced Therapies for $135m (approximately £100m) in 2021.
Now Cawood has joined forces with his former colleague Deyan Sultov (pictured, second from left) to launch Lab Thread, a venture that aims to transform laboratory data management. It has raised £750,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II through fund manager Mercia Ventures.
Based in Silverstone, it aims to fill a gap in the market for cost-effective software that can manage complex research data across both office and laboratory environments. The funding will enable the firm to finalise development and commercialise the platform.
Current laboratory software is often too costly for smaller organisations, or provides only a partial solution that does not integrate with other systems. Therefore scientists tend to record research results in a range of different ways including paper notebooks, slides and spreadsheets, which makes it difficult to share data and hinders workflow.
Lab Thread aims to resolve these issues by providing a user-friendly, all-in-one solution. The platform will combine advanced DNA visualisation tools, sample inventory, project management and in-lab experiment recording capabilities, all pre-populated for everyday laboratory tasks.
“Research is highly complex and regularly takes unexpected turns but current software platforms often fail to allow this level of flexibility,” said Cawood. “As a result, researchers often resort to using paper or lose important data.
“Lab Thread aims to make their jobs easier by providing interfaces for both the office and lab, stripping out the paperwork and streamlining processes along the way.
“I worked with Mercia for over a decade while building OXGENE and the partnership was very successful for both sides, so the first thing I did when starting this new venture was to reach out to Mercia again. The funding will enable us to aggressively pursue our development plans and transform laboratory data management.”