CanSense – a Swansea company which has developed a blood test that aims to save lives by diagnosing bowel cancer at an early stage – has raised £1.5m from Mercia, the Development Bank of Wales and liquid biopsy company Nonacus. CanSense’s test, which combines laser spectroscopy with artificial intelligence, is faster, less expensive and less
Award-winning games developer SockMonkey Studios has been acquired by Canada’s largest video game studio, Behaviour Interactive, for an undisclosed sum. The deal provides an exit for NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), and which achieved a fourfold return on investment. Following the £250,000
A Leeds recruitment company is planning to double in size with the help of a £150,000 loan from NPIF – Mercia Debt Finance, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF). Marmion has increased the size of its team from four to eight since 2021 and is now planning
A Sheffield company which has developed a new encryption solution for telecoms and data networks has raised over £1m from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), Mercia’s EIS funds and private investors. Sitehop’s system solves a major challenge for telecoms companies, cloud
HowNow – a learning experience platform (LXP) that helps companies onboard, upskill and support employees faster everywhere they work – has secured a £4m series A investment from Mercia and the world’s leading learning company Pearson. HowNow has transformed how scale-up companies including Depop, Vanmoof, Permutive, and Checkout.com and global enterprises like Mercer, Telenor, Sanofi and
Mercia has expanded its Sheffield team with the appointment of Chris Borrett as Investment Director. In his new role Chris will be providing Sheffield businesses with equity investment from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), working alongside other colleagues offering debt and other types of equity funding. Originally from Yorkshire, Chris has a masters degree
Dxcover – a Glasgow-based company developing a blood test that can detect cancer at an early stage – has raised £9.7m through a Series A investment round and grant funding. The £7.5m funding round was led by existing investors Eos Advisory LLP, Mercia, Scottish Enterprise, University of Strathclyde, SIS Ventures and Norcliffe Capital, which were
An artificial intelligence (AI) company which has launched a new platform to help social landlords manage rent arrears has raised a further £1.55m from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), and Mercia’s EIS funds. Pivigo’s platform – that is already used by
Mercia invested over £120m during 2022, with 79% going to businesses outside London. During the year, Mercia backed 159 companies. They included Nova Pangaea in Teeside, which is developing sustainable aviation fuel; Oxford-based Optellum which has an AI platform for early diagnosis of lung cancer; Axis Spine Technologies in St Albans which is developing next generation
Slingshot Simulations, a pioneering digital twin company which is backed by Mercia, has raised a further £3 million in a Series A investment round from Northern Gritstone, Mercia and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF). A spinout from the University of Leeds, based in Nexus on the university’s campus, Slingshot Simulations was founded in 2019