EIE – A Good Investment – EIE – Engage Invest Exploit

The investment achieved by some of the EIE alumni in the last year has been impressive, especially given the year we have had.

This is a testament to the quality of companies that attend EIE and the tenacity of the founders, who are constantly pushing the boundaries.

The investment raised has totaled over £40m so we thought we would take a look at the companies involved.

Current Health – £31m

In April, Edinburgh based Current Health raised a whopping £31m in their Series B funding round.

This remote care management platform has achieved phenomenal growth over the last year, reaching the enviable target of 3000% growth in year on year revenue. They are one of the fastest-growing health care companies, and this investment round will aid their global expansion plans.

Chris McCann, CEO and Co-Founder, who first appeared at EIE15, said in UKTN,

“Our Series B financing, from top investors in both healthcare and pharma, will enable us to rapidly grow on a global scale and meet the demand for an integrated, enterprise approach.”

RAB Microfluidics – £1.24m

Rotimi Alabi, Founder and MD of RAB Microfluidics, first appeared at EIE in 2018. His ‘Lab on a Chip’ is a fantastic solution to the complex problem of machinery degradation, which can cost energy companies millions.

In January, Rotimi secured £1.24m, which is a huge step forward for the Aberdeen University spin-out. This funding round led by St Andrews-based Seed Funders EOS and included Scottish Enterprise and London-based Newable Ventures will enable RAB Microfluidics to double their headcount.

Jan Robertson, Interim Director, Scottish Enterprise, speaking in Energy Voice, said:

“RAB-Microfluidics is a significant early-stage technology company with high growth potential that has much to offer a wide range of industries globally.”

ClinSpec Diagnositcs – £3.5m

This Glasgow-based University spin-out managed to reach its funding target of £3.5m in March 2021. Their technology, developed in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, aims to develop liquid biopsies to detect cancer early.

Their first appearance at EIE was in 2018. Since then, they have established their own lab and office facility, which the funding will help complete. Mark Hegarty, CEO of ClinSpec, said,

“Achieving the £3.5m target enables us to accelerate our plans… increase staffing to 15, bringing forward key operational and commercial appointments”.

Cyan Forensics – £5m

Ian Stevenson first appeared on the stage at EIE16 and then returned to the following three events. Ian has been developing technology that significantly impacts counter-terror and child sexual abuse investigations in the UK.

The most recent Series B investment round of £5m, which Par Equity led, takes the total investment up to £8m and will help them with their ambitious expansion plans across mainland Europe and the US.

This money will also help develop Cyan Protect. Their ultra-fast moderation and blocking system help social media platforms, messaging, and cloud content sharing companies find and block child abuse and terrorist content.

The funding round included Par Equity, Mercia Asset Management, Triple Point and SIS Ventures.

Ian McLennan, Head of Ventures at the London-based Triple Point, said,

“We’re excited to continue our involvement with Cyan, a business that combines innovation and a strong growth story with the potential to make a significant positive social impact contribution as well.”

Talking Medicines – £1.1m

This Glasgow-based, social intelligence company for the pharmaceutical industry welcomed a £1.1m investment in November of last year. Led by London-based Tern Plc, which specialises in Internet of Things (IoT) investments, were joined by the Scottish Investment back in this round.

Co-Founders Jo Halliday, Dr Elizabeth Fairly and Dr Scott Crae first appeared at EIE London 2016 then again at Edinburgh-based EIE17. Their solution uses Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing tech tools to assess conversations and behaviours of patients at home to help big pharma companies to understand the patient sentiment.

This new investment will help them make nine new hires and support the launch of their new AI data platform.

Tern CEO Al Sisto said,

“We are truly excited to add Talking Medicines to our portfolio. It is a company that brings expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning to our portfolio with its platform and is solving a critical problem for an industry that spends around US$30 billion on marketing annually, whilst lacking systematic data tools that can structure patient sentiment from social channels.”