OxSyBio, a UK-based 3D biological materials printing spinout from University of Oxford, received $13.9m in series A funding on Monday from a round that included commercialisation firm IP Group.
Fund manager Woodford Investment Management led the round, which also included spinout-focused investment firm Parkwalk Advisors, a subsidiary of IP Group. OxSyBio will receive part of the investment at certain milestones.
Spun out from Oxford’s Department of Chemistry in 2014, OxSyBio is developing a 3D printing platform that can print tissues to help repair or replace injured or diseased body parts. The platform uses living cells, non-living cells or hybrid materials.
The spinout is commercialising research conducted by Hagan Bayley, whose work also led to the creation of portable DNA and RNA sequencer developer, Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Nanopore most recently secured $126m in late 2016.
OxSyBio will use the capital to refine its artificial cell and 3D bioprinting technology.
Parkwalk Advisors previously revealed it had backed the series A round in February 2018. The spinout had previously raised $1.7m in seed capital from IP Group four years previously.
Hadrian Green, chief executive of OxSyBio, said: “Biological functions are difficult to create using electrical or mechanical devices, therefore, harnessing the power of biological materials in non-living devices will be highly disruptive.
“This investment is testament to the power of the original ideas and the hard work of our chief technology officer Sam Olof, the OxSyBio team and the founding lab to turn research into reality.”
