Health tech startup Closed Loop Medicine has raised £2.1m in a pre-Series A funding round from Longwall Venture Partners, IQ Capital and Martlet, it was announced this morning.
The Cambridge startup, which describes itself as a "new breed of therapeutics company", says its approach is based on using data and insights about how patients are responding to treatments to tailor drug and non-drug therapy.
What's the context?
In April, Closed Loop Medicine announced a slew of appointments to its senior management team, with cofounders Dr Paul Goldsmith, Dr David Cox and Dr Felicity Sartain taking on the president and chief innovation officer, chief digital officer and chief operations officer roles, respectively.
According to Dr Hakim Yadi OBE, the company’s chief executive and cofounder, who was previously CEO of the Northern Health Science Alliance, the new funding will underpin the development of a “drug + digital approach” aiming to treat various health conditions, initially looking at hypertension and sleep disturbance.
“Having been in stealth mode for several years, this latest fund raising marks a significant milestone for the business and its founders. As well as securing venture capital funding from experienced investors in deep tech and life sciences, we have been able to establish corporate partnerships with international Pharma companies and the NHS, we have also hired a senior management team that represents the very best in talent across healthcare and technology,” Dr Yadi said in a statement.
Founded in 2017, Closed Loop Medicine first secured seed funding through the Cambridge Angel Network. It then raised further investment from Longwall Venture Partners and Cambridge Angels, joined in the most recent round by IQ Capital.
On the record
“Closed Loop Medicine has brought together a world-class team of experienced and passionate healthcare professionals with the goal of delivering a step-change in how we do medicine in the 21st century,” said Dr Rebecca Todd, investment director and specialist health and life sciences investor at Longwall Venture Partners.
“Their unique approach for providing personalised precision medicine by combining drug with digital to create individualised treatment regimens will be applicable across a wide range of clinical areas and has the potential to transform the way we treat patients and manage illness,” Dr Todd added.
According to 2018 statistics released at the beginning of May, the UK life sciences industry employs more than 248,000 people in nearly 5,900 businesses, generating a turnover of £73.8bn. But while medtech is the largest sector acccording to employment figures (with about 40%), biopharma is the biggest one by turnover, with £33.4bn.
