CCI Photonics, a Lancaster University spinout which aims to help clinicians prescribe antibiotics more effectively has become one of the first companies to receive a £200k investment from PraeSeed, a six-week cohort investing programme for early-stage businesses.
It will use the funding to further trial its InfectiScan device, a point-of-care test that can be used by GPs and pharmacists to accurately detect infection types in patients so the best antibiotic can be prescribed. This is turn will help tackle the ongoing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), hastened by patients taking incorrect or unnecessary antibiotics.
CCI Photonics, which has also received grant funding from UK Research and Innovation, will now undertake further steps towards clinical adoption, including validating its prototype in a laboratory setting, before eventually seeking market approval.
Dr. Carlos Alejandro Meza Ramirez, CEO and co-founder of CCI Photonics, said:
“The lessons learned throughout the PraeSeed programme have helped lay the ground for early conversations with future investors. It also provided us with a strong foundation from which we have successfully secured a new grant from UK Research and Innovation, which will be used to strengthen our prototype feasibility study in collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. I have great confidence in our team, and I’m certain we will make a difference in saving lives and tackling microbial resistance.”
In total seven businesses have secured investment from PraeSeed, an initiative founded by the Manchester-based VC Praetura Ventures and funded by NPIF II – Praetura Equity Finance, which is managed by Praetura as part of the British Business Bank’s Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.
Launched in May, PraSeed’s mission is to identify startup and early-stage investment opportunities for NPIF II, while providing founders at the pre-seed stage with new opportunities for additional funding and support with investor readiness.
Jessica Jackson, investment manager at Praetura Ventures and PraeSeed lead, said: “PraeSeed was developed to seek out and fund early-stage businesses such as CCI Photonics, which impressed us throughout the programme, from our initial meeting all the way through to the pitching stage. It was a natural choice for us and is proof there is a substantial amount of innovation happening across Lancashire.”
Sue Barnard, Senior Manager at British Business Bank, said: “Supporting companies that are pushing the boundaries of innovation is crucial in creating new processes and products to solve complex medical problems. This investment will do exactly that by giving financial resource to an exciting medtech company in an important field of health.”
Read more about the PrasSeed programme and its inaugural round of investments here.
For details of the NPIFF II fund, and other sources of early-stage funding available in Lancashire, visit our finance resource guide here.
