Fluidic Analytics flows towards $7m series B

Fluidic Analytics, a biotechnology spinout of Cambridge University, raised £5.3m ($7m) in a series B round today that featured the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Fund.

The fund, managed by the institution’s tech transfer office Cambridge Enterprise, was joined by IQ Capital Partners, which led the round, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Parkwalk Advisors, Draper Esprit and Amadeus Capital Partners.

Although the size of Cambridge Enterprise Seed Fund’s commitment was not revealed, the deal marked the largest single investment made by the fund to date.

Founded in 2013, Fluidic Analytics is working on a protein characterisation platform, which combines advanced sample handling with cloud computing to gain a real-time insight into the current disease state of a patient.

The technology is based on research conducted by professor Tuomas Knowles.

The money will allow the spinout to advance its line of lab research tools. The spinout plans to ship its first product, named Flow Mk-1, in the second half of this year.

Max Bautin will join Fluidic’s board to represent IQ Capital Partners.

Cambridge Enterprise previously led a $2.4m series A round in January 2015. Draper Esprit, IQ Capital, Parkwalk and Amadeus contributed to that round.

UK state agency Innovate UK provided a $384,000 Development of Prototype Award in June 2015, following a £100,000 proof of concept grant in 2014.

Amdrew Lynn, chief executive of Fluidic Analytics, said: “This financing is a key element to fuelling the next phase in the growth of Fluidic Analytics. The team deserves tremendous credit for the work they have done for protein quantitation with the Flow Mk‑1.

“We look forward to driving further transformative developments for protein characterisation over the next few years as we expand our product line into the areas of basic quantitative immunoassays and protein-protein interactions with the Flow Mk-1i and the Flow Mk‑1m.”