Queens University Belfast (QUB) spin-out Causeway Sensors has received a €1.8m investment led by Kernal Capital through the £15m (€17.8m) Bank of Ireland Capital Growth Fund (NI).
Kernal Capital will contribute €1.5m to the campus company through the fund, with a further €300,000 from existing investor QUBIS. Kernal and QUBIS previously invested in Causeway Sensors as part of a £1.2m (€1.7m) funding round in 2018.
Causeway is in the process of developing a nano sensor platform to help pharmaceutical companies more quickly capture patient data when screening candidates as part of efforts to create new biological drugs.
Current instrumentation can only capture critical data after long incubation period, but Causeway's sensor would be integrated into a bioreactor to capture data in real-time and hopefully reduce risk, improve decision making and bring new drugs to market quicker.
The company was established in 2016, and the patented nano sensor platform came after five years of research and development following 20 years of QUB research.
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"There is an unmet need for instrumentation that can provide high value data in real time, online, throughout the drug development process, we believe Causeway Sensors can deliver on that need," Niall Olden, managing partner of Kernal Capital, said.
"Causeway is a great example of the deep tech that exists within the current QUBIS portfolio and we are delighted to once again support the team with their plans to bring this ground breaking technology into the market," David Moore, head of spin-outs and investments at QUBIS, added.
Causeway was also awarded £3.3m in grant support by UK Research & Innovation this year as part of the Smart Nano NI consortium, led by Seagate Technology and also featuring another joint Kernel Capital/QUBIS portfolio company, Cirdan Imaging.
As part of the latest investment, Causeway founder Dr Bob Pollard will take on the role of executive president, Dr Antony Murphy has been promoted to CEO and Deirdre Francis, formerly of Interlens, has been appointed to the new role of finance director.
"This latest round of funding is the final stepping-stone on the path to commercialisation of Causeway's technology and I want to take the opportunity to thank our investors for their continued support on our journey," Dr Murphy said.
"This investment, along with the competitive grant-funding we were awarded from UKRI, will put Causeway in a strong position to fully validate our first product with blue-chip pharmaceutical companies before entering the bioproduction market."
Photo: Senise Sidhu (left), partner at Kernal Capital; Dr Antony Murphy, CEO of Causeway Sensors; Dr Bob Pollar, found of Causeway Sensors; and David Moore, head of spin-outs and investments at QUIBIS.
