• BugBiome wins a business support package worth over £100,000, including one year of free lab space at Discovery Park and £50,000 investment from Discovery Park Ventures
• BioMavericks was awarded the wildcard prize as voted for by the audience at the GIANT Health Healthcare Investment Show on 5^th December

BugBiome was announced as the winner of the Discovery Spark life science business support programme at the GIANT Health Healthcare Investment Show on 5^th December. BugBiome will be awarded a business support package worth over £100,000, including one year of free lab space at Discovery Park and £50,000 investment from Discovery Park Ventures.

Eleven start-ups took part in the programme, including 3D Synthesis, Awen, Bing Bong Bio, BioMavericks, BugBiome, CardioCrown, DLOC Biosystems, Dravya Discovery, KASNMR, Rapidx Bio, and The Future Care. They participated in in-person training sessions, covering topics such as building an excellent team, understanding and conveying business metrics, and building a strong brand, as well as extensive networking and mentoring opportunities. Having refined their pitches throughout the programme, six finalists pitched to investors and other audience members as part of the GIANT Health conference.

BugBiome was chosen as the overall winner based on its promising business offering and extensive progress throughout the programme. The company is harnessing the power of the skin microbiome to repel pests, utilising natural bacteria to create effective, long-lasting repellents.

Alicia Showering, Founder and CEO at BugBiome, said: “We’re so excited to win the Discovery Spark programme following a fantastic eight weeks learning from industry leaders and our fellow start-ups. We’re passionate about stopping the spread of deadly vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue and Discovery Spark has given us some excellent tools and connections to further progress our business and make this a reality.”

Based on the strength of the participating companies, Discovery Park decided to offer a wildcard prize in addition to the overall winner. BioMavericks was selected as the wildcard winner, following the audience vote at the GIANT Health Healthcare Investment Show. The company will be awarded six months free lab space at Discovery Park as well as business support from Barclays Eagle Labs and the programme’s partners. BioMavericks is an early-stage biotech start-up, focused on developing an in vitro diagnostic blood test for pancreatic cancer to revolutionise cancer diagnostics using AI-driven biotechnology.

Discovery Park’s Head of Innovation, Renos Savva, who led the programme, said: “We were thrilled to welcome such a promising group of start-ups to Discovery Park to share experience and ideas from specialists within the industry. We saw all of the participants develop their businesses over the course of the programme and I am excited to witness their further growth in the coming months and years. Choosing the winner was a very tough task and I would like to congratulate all the companies involved. Particular congratulations go to BugBiome and BioMavericks on their wins, and I look forward to welcoming them to Discovery Park and continuing to work with them. Many thanks to all our supporting companies, facilitators and advisors for making the programme such a success.”

Mayer Schreiber, CEO at Discovery Park, added: “The Discovery Park team prides itself on supporting the next generation of life science leaders, and our Discovery Spark programme is the embodiment of that. Working with these companies has demonstrated the wealth of innovation we have in the UK and it excites me to see how they will progress in the future. Congratulations to the winners, we look forward to welcoming you to Discovery Park soon.”

Thank you to our prize partners and facilitators including Kreston Reeves, SRG, Prismea Limited, Sciad Communications, Abel + Imray, Barclays Eagle Labs, Researcher, Janne Bate, Phillipa Clark, Michal Barski, Michael O’Neill, Michelle Yeoman ACC, David Savva, Mark Preston, Cameron Watson, Helen Banyard, James Easley.

Discovery Park Ventures (DPV) announces the expansion of its early-stage life science fund from £1m to £3m, in order to capitalise on exciting investment opportunities and support its existing portfolio. The fund’s investors have committed an additional £2m, which will also enable the fund to take larger stakes in companies that strongly align with its strategic objectives.

DPV was formed in 2022 by Discovery Park to invest in promising, fast-growing life-science companies with close links to the innovation ecosystem at Discovery Park. The first £1m tranche of DPV is now fully invested. Recent investments include Optceutics Ltd, an ophthalmology drug development company that uses its pharmacokinetic model, PK-Eye™, to accelerate the development of ocular formulations. Two others will be announced shortly. DPV is also invested in Vitarka Therapeutics, VisusNano, Booby Biome, Neobe Therapeutics, Ignota Labs and Oxford Medical Products.

The first transactions from the second tranche of the fund have been follow-on funding rounds into two existing portfolio companies, one of which is Ignota Labs (focused on preventing safety failures in drug discovery with Explainable AI). New investments are also being reviewed. Discovery Park Ventures will be presenting some of its portfolio at Giant Health’s ‘Healthcare Investment Show’ in partnership with Discovery Park in London tomorrow (December 5^th 2023).

Mayer Schreiber, Chair of Discovery Park Ventures and CEO of Discovery Park, commented: “Our portfolio of investments is making strong progress, and we are delighted by the support our investors have shown us with this second tranche of funding. It is the first step in Discovery Park Ventures’ planned expansion, and we look forward to working with regional investment groups and other funds as we grow.”

DPV has plans to further expand the fund up to £25m in the next three years with a focus on companies developing novel and disruptive technologies that have strong collaborative relationships with Discovery Park.