A company which aims to facilitate the use of stem cells in treating disease has raised £750,000 in a private placing and been named among the world’s most disruptive companies.
WideCells Group PLC is based at the University of Manchester Innovation Centre (UMIC) and aims to increase the number of diseases treatable with stem cells and make treatment accessible and affordable across the world.
The funds raised will be used to expand and support the company’s three divisions: CellPlan, WideCells and WideAcademy.
After listing on the London Stock Exchange in July 2016, WideCells was recently ranked as the 21st most disruptive company globally by ‘Disrupt 100’ and has been nominated for the IPO Life Sciences of the year award by Biotech&Money.
The DISRUPT 100 is an annual index celebrating the businesses with the most potential to influence, change or create new global markets and is compiled and curated by the world’s leading entrepreneurs, investors and business people.
“This is an extremely exciting phase in our development as we look to accelerate the growth of all three of our divisions through the aggressive roll out of new and existing products and services,” said WideCells Group chief executive Joao Andrade, who co-founded the company with chief operating officer Lopes Gil.
“Having recently been granted a research licence from the UK’s Human Tissue Authority and with further growth planned across all three of our divisions, this cash injection will enable us to proceed with further cutting-edge stem cell research and continue the rapid roll out of our innovative stem cell services in a market that is projected to be worth US$170 billion by 2020, which is intended to help drive more revenues for the company in the future.
“We are ideally positioned to build on our position as a key service provider and leading international innovator in the stem cell arena. Our commitment to innovation is highlighted through our recent ranking as the 21st most disruptive company globally by DISRUPT 100; I look forward to continuing in this vein, increasing revenue and rewarding shareholders for their support.”
WideCells Group employs 30 people across its three divisions in Manchester, Lisbon and Brazil.
Doctor Peter Hollands, chief scientific officer of WideCells Group, heads up the laboratory at UMIC (pictured above), just outside Manchester city centre.
“Our growth trajectory has been steep and we are set to continue this in the coming months as our proprietary insurance product CellPlan gains traction, the marketing of INDUS, a novel synthetic bone graft which promotes new bone formation increases, and the expansion of our stem cell bank relationships as well as our own storage capabilities expands,” added Andrade.