Impulsonics closes £450k initial funding round
Members of the Impulsonics Team at Future Space, Bristol.
Left to right: Amanda Franklin, Luke Cox, Ximena Vasto
[Bristol, May 2024] - Impulsonics is delighted to announce that it has closed its first funding round to advance the development of its unique biotech automation platform and begin customer trials. The investment from SFC Capital, British Business Investments, the University of Bristol and private angels highlights market confidence in Impulsonics’ mission to turn cutting edge scientific innovations into scalable processes for research and healthcare.
“This is a really exciting time for us,” said Dr. Luke Cox, CEO & Co-Founder of Impulsonics. "We're already seeing a demand for more reliable, scalable processes across the sector and that is exactly what our technology promises to deliver. Our unique approach builds on well-established industrial technologies from the aerospace and infrastructure sectors and will help to re-imagine workflows in biotechnology.”
Impulsonics is developing a biotech automation platform that uses acoustic waves to move cells inside sterile containers without touching them. This enables a massive reduction in the complexity of critical processes in cell culture leading enabling low cost, high throughput modular systems for automation of critical pain points such as cell passaging (the highly repetitive process where cells which have filled their current container must be moved to a new one). This will enable a transformation of lab-scale cell culture techniques into a reliable industrial process suitable for 21st century healthcare and drug discovery applications. This will be especially critical given the rise of AI in drug discovery which demands large volumes of high quality data, far beyond what current processes can yield.
“There’s never been a more exciting time in biotechnology,” said SFC Investment Executive Ed Stevenson, “and Impulsonics fills a critical gap of scalability in a way that nobody else is tackling it. We were impressed by their innovative approach and are excited to be backing Luke and the team on their journey.”
About Impulsonics: Impulsonics Ltd is an award winning spin-out from the University of Bristol Ultrasonics and Non-Destructive Testing Research Group building on over a decade of deep research and leveraging world-leading expertise in acoustics. They are on a mission to make biotech automation simple and scalable so scientists can focus on the problems that matter.
About SFC: SFC Capital is the UK’s most active seed-stage investor, providing seed capital and support to promising British startups. By combining their leading investment funds with their angel syndicate, they have created a unique model that provides investors with diversified exposure to high-potential SEIS and EIS-qualifying businesses. Since 2012, SFC has invested in over 450 startups and partnered with the likes of British Business Investments to support innovation across all UK regions. To learn more about what they do and see their portfolio, visit sfccapital.com.
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