Shares in a London-based tissue engineering firm have dropped by a third in the first hour of trading this morning after a 15 million funding deal fell through.
BSF Enterprise PLC’s subsidiaries include lab-grown leather, corneal repair and cell-culture media supplements. It also has operations in Hong Kong.
The proposed £15m equity raise, backed by Blackstone Mercantile Group, was to accelerate commercialisation plans.
It was intended to support the launch of Elemental X, a platform for bio-engineered leather. Just last week it announced the successful production of a fully tanned, scaffold-free skin, reaching A4 sheet size and approaching 2mm thickness.
The company said last week it was now in a position to extend its engagement with luxury goods manufacturers, material distributors, and brand partners on the basis of a tangible, scalable and demonstrable product. That is now thrown into doubt.
Meanwhile BSF subsidiary Kerato intended to use £500,000 to fund 55% of a veterinary trial of its liquid cornea this year, with the rest funded by a Canadian government grant.
This novel dropwise treatment for corneal damage aims to regenerate the tissue. It had targeted commercial launch of LiQD Cornea Animal Health in Canada in Q1 2027, with first revenues anticipated thereafter.
Human trials of the treatment were planned for 2027. Over 13m people worldwide are currently waiting for a corneal transplant, with demand far exceeding donor availability. A successful engineered treatment could reduce corneal blindness.
Meanwhile, subsidiary 3D Bio-Tissues – a Newcastle University spinout – was to use the new funding to expand sales of its CytoBoost range, which is designed to improve the recovery of cells after deep-freeze storage.
In December 3DBT signed a head of terms with SeaWith, a South Korean cultivated-meat company, on a £300k deal to deliver commercial supplies of City-Mix, the company’s premium macromolecular crowder for cell culture, to help reduce the cost and scale production of its cultivated beef product.
However this morning BSF stated to the London Stock Exchange: “The equity fundraise for £15m and proposed capital reorganisation has been mutually terminated between the parties and each party will seek to terminate all relevant agreements that formed part of the transaction.”
It added that a CLN (credit-linked note) of £300,000 would continue on the same terms and be extended for 12 months, and then repaid in cash – or the CLN noteholders would have a right to convert over that period at the next BSF capital raise price.
BSF said it will seek alternative fundraising options and it has entered discussions with other parties to raise funds both at group level and subsidiary level for Lab-grown Leather Ltd and Kerato Ltd in the next few weeks.
In its most recent annual accounts – ended 30th September 2025 – BSF had a net loss of around £1m (2024: £1.7m loss). The narrowed losses reflected careful cost control and increased grant income, the firm said.
Last August chairwoman Min Yang resigned from BSF and was replaced by Geoff Baker.