MedTech firm Glyconics has secured £1.5 million in an enterprise investment scheme funding round ahead of a Series A round next year.
The innovative diagnostics startup, with offices in Cambridge, Norwich and Basingstoke, raised well over the intended £850k in a raise led by investment platform Wealth Club plus existing investors Deepbridge Capital and Boundary Capital.
Demand from Wealth Club private investors and angel investors pushed the total amount further to £1.5m.
The raise will fund a large-scale trial programme of Glyconics’ point-of-care diabetes screening tool, Glyconics-SX, prior to applying for regulatory approval and CE marking.
The non-invasive handheld device exploits the use of miniaturised infra-red spectrometry for the early diagnosis of diabetes – detecting biomarker changes in a patient’s fingernail within seconds and without the need for single-use plastics.
Diabetes is a global epidemic and public health challenge, killing more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined every year. It is a major cause of severe complications leading to blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and lower limb amputation, and the World Health Organisation projects it will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030.
Early detection is key to long-term management of the condition and increased life expectancy. However, screening currently depends on blood or urine tests which require plastic disposables with related processing, logistics and costly resources – and have been heavily criticised for producing false positives or failing to detect the disease.
News of the oversubscribed round comes hot on the heels of the company employing internationally renowned diabetes expert, Dr Päivi Paldánius, to be its first chief medical officer as the team ramps up to progress to the next clinical phase.
“Glyconics offers a transformational, cost-efficient, rapid and non-invasive approach to diabetes screening – and it is testament to this pioneering device and all at Team Glyconics that this raise was so significantly over-subscribed,” said CEO Dr Kam Pooni.
Alex Davies, CEO of Wealth Club, said: “Glyconics presents an opportunity where investment could have positive healthcare and social impact.
“What struck a chord with many Wealth Club investors is that Glyconics’ technology promotes earlier diagnosis of a disease that has affected themselves or their friends and family – and, as we all know, untreated diabetes can lead to worse complications such as kidney disease and increased risk of cancer.
“The funds we’ve helped Glyconics raise should help the company achieve another milestone towards its important goal of accessible and earlier disease screening.”