Here we feature the latest equity investments to support the job creation and expansion of firms in Wales.
Bond Medical Healthcare
Medtech firm Bond Digital Health has secured a £1m funding boost support its plans for growth.
The Cardiff-headquartered company, which has developed a data capture and management system for lateral flow diagnostic tests, raised the investment through its existing shareholders.
The investment included equity funding of £350,000 from the Development Bank of Wales, with the remainder coming from members of Wealth Club, the high-net-worth investment service.
Investors through Wealth Club included the company’s chief executive Ian Smith, and its chair Wayne Harvey.The current funding round closes at the end of January, with Bond aiming to raise a further £500,000.
he funding will be used to expand the team over the next year, including a new customer success team and additional resources in the sales, marketing and product development teams.
Some of these roles will service Bond’s growing international customer base as the company expands overseas
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Last year Bond secured almost £2m in equity funding and more than £200,000 in 海角视频 and Welsh Government grants, which allowed it to expand its development team and bring its app product, Transform to market.
The data management platform records lateral flow test results and additional data in real time. All data is captured on the platform - and becomes instantly available to view on the Transform dashboard.
Mr Smith said: “This has been another important year of growth and development for Bond Digital Health. Now that we have several international customers signed up to our platform, we need to make sure we successfully service their needs 24/7. This funding will help us do that by ensuring we have the right people in the right roles.”
Mark Bowman, senior investment executive at Development Bank of Wales, said:“Ian and the team at Bond have a bright future ahead as their technology has the potential to revolutionise the management of lateral flow test result data. We are proud to continue to support the growth of the business with our equity investment from our Wales Flexible Investment Fund.”
Glucose Republic
A Cardiff health tech firm, which has developed a system that measures how people react to the food they eat with the aim of informing healthier lifestyle choices, has secured a six-figure equity investment to support scale-up plans.
Glucose Republic (GR) has closed a £500,000 investment round from Deepbridge Capital and the Development Bank of Wales, to build the world’s first system focused on what impact food has upon by combining biology and software . The start-up was formed by Julian Shapley and David Haines, who were previously involved in developing the world’s first mobile-connected diabetes management platform.
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Every person has a unique food fingerprint, which shows how we react to foods. The GR system allows users to directly measure how their body is reacting to the foods they eat and the things they do. It said that understanding the impact of glucose will enable customers to adapt their food plans to their own lifestyles.
GR chief executive David Haines said: “We are delighted that Deepbridge and the Development Bank of Wales have joined our mission to help customers understand the impact of their food choices, and benefit from our glucose proposition.”
Deepbridge investment manager Ben Carter said: “At Deepbridge, we invest in strong teams that have the skills and knowledge to create globally scalable products. We look forward to working in partnership with GR during its continued development and commercialisation.”
Development Bank of Wales senior investment executive Doctor Richard Thompson said: “We are delighted to co-invest with Deepbridge again and to support Glucose Republic. Our equity investment will help Julian, David and the team realise their potential, improving people’s health by empowering individuals to choose the foods that are best for them.”
GR was advised by Capital Law. Deepbridge was represented by their in-house counsel, and the Development Bank of Wales was advised by Geldards.
Jordan Thomas from Capital Law said: “GR is an exciting and innovative business, focused on bettering health and wellness through its unique technology. It’s been a pleasure to work alongside David, Julian and the team in securing this investment and we expect the company to flourish with the support of Development Bank of Wales and Deepbridge.”
Space Forge
Cardiff-based Space Forge, which is pioneering returnable satellites that are designed for manufacturing next generation super materials in space, has secured a £7.7m equity boost in what is Europe’s largest ever seed funding round for a space tech company.
The four times oversubscribed funding round, backed by investor including Type One Ventures, World Fund and SpaceFund, recognises the global potential of Space Forge’s returnable platform for in-space manufacturing to reduce CO2 emissions.
Start-up Space Forge, which aims to launch up to two missions next year, is looking to advance the expansion of the microgravity market for premium research and development applications by lowering the barriers to entry.Dedicated in-space manufacturing, coupled with reliable return, enables Space Forge to leverage the benefits of the space environment, namely: microgravity, vacuum, and temperature, to create products impossible to manufacture on earth.
The funding round was co-led by US-based SpaceFund and Type One, who champion innovation in space and cutting-edge technology, and Berlin-based World Fund, a new European fund which backs companies pioneering climate tech.
Other US-based funds, including SpaceVC, Starbridge Venture Capital, Quiet Capital, Kencoa Aerospace, Trousdale Ventures, Dylan Taylor, and FJ Labs participated in the round. They were joined by Newable Ventures - the 海角视频’s leading early-stage investment network which works with disruptive, potentially high-growth companies and Virgin Galactic’s George T. Whitesides.
Andrew Bacon, chief technology officer and co-founder of Space Forge, said: “Over the last three years we have taken our return technology from paper designs to real hardware. This support from our investors will supercharge our development plans to lead the way in making space work for humanity.”
Joshua Western, chief executive and co-founder of Space Forge, said: “Making space work for humanity and our planet has always been our goal and this investment enables us to build our first generation platforms and undertake several missions in pursuit of that goal. We’re just getting started.”
“Space Forge are demonstrating why the 海角视频 is the place to invest in space, and showing the significant commercial opportunities from technologies like in-orbit manufacturing.”
Tarek Waked, founder of Type One Ventures: “Joshua and Andrew prove that there is real value that can be brought to humanity via building a space company. If you have the will, capacity, and the idea, anyone can build a space company in the 2020s, not just billionaires. I could not be more proud of the team at Space Forge and look forward to working with them for a very long time.”
Meagan Crawford, managing partner of SpaceFund, said: “SpaceFund is always looking for the companies that not only have the vision, but have the technical and market capabilities to execute on that vision.
“Unlike many of the other in-space manufacturing companies we’ve reviewed, Space Forge has the right combination of technology, team, and market timing to provide significant return to investors, while helping save the environment.”
Giles Thorley, chief executive of the Development Bank of Wales, said: “The Development Bank is proud to be an initial investment partner of Space Forge that’s supported the team from its inception to drive its growth ambitions.
“ This investment represents how deeptech can be harnessed for global applications while bringing us closer to a greener, more sustainable future. We are also happy that Space Forge counts Wales as its home and to see this Cardiff-based pioneer becoming such a driving force in the Welsh innovation ecosystem.”
Cardiff Capital Region
A new £100m fund to back the expansion plans of firms in the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), as well as attracting new investment and jobs into the region, has moved a step closer.
The region, made up of the 10 local authorities of south-east Wales, is now looking to appoint an external funder manager for its Innovation Investment Fund.
The cabinet of the CCR, made up of the region’s local authority leaders, have agreed a funding commitment of £50m from the £1.3bn City Deal, towards the investment fund, with the expectation that the appointed fund manager will match fund it so taking the investment pot to £100m. The fund, with a focus on supporting firms to scale-up, will also seek to leverage further investment from co-investors on a deal by deal basis.
It is not clear at this stage whether the fund will be split up into specific funding pots, although the appointed fund manager will be expected to originate investment deal flow, which as well as identifying indigenous firms could also back inward investment projects into the region.
The aim is for the fund to become evergreen with returns from investments made through equity, and potentially debt that could be converted into equity, being invested back into the fund to make new investments.
e investment fund plans comes after the British Business Bank, following an announcement in Rishi Sunak’s Budget in October, is setting up a £130m investment fund to back Welsh SMEs. While there are currently no specific details on the fund, it will be run by an external fund manager.
The Business Growth Fund has also stepped up its investment activity in Wales with two recent equity investments to support the expansion plans of Swansea-based Character.com and Ammanford-based Victorian Sliders.