Mercia’s commitment to early stage businesses outside of Oxford, Cambridge and London was recognised last night after the company won Highest Impact Investor at the OBN Awards 2016.
The award was collected by Mercia’s CEO, Dr Mark Payton, alongside Head of Life Sciences & Bio-Sciences Peter Dines and Investment Manager Dr Brjjesh Roy. All three have worked closely with innovative life sciences businesses, including those spun out of Mercia’s 18 partner universities in the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland.
Dr Mark Payton said:
“We were shortlisted alongside some of the great names in technology transfer and commercialisation, such as Imperial Innovations and Cambridge Enterprise.
“Mercia was described as an active national investor with a productive strategy of investing in the underserved regions outside of the triangle of Oxford, London and Cambridge through six regional offices.
“It was therefore a great pleasure to collect the Highest Impact Investor award last night on behalf of Mercia and this reflects our journey of rapid growth – which has only just begun!”
The OBN Awards took place at the Town Hall in Oxford with an audience of over 250 leaders from Biotech, Medtech and Investment companies. The Awards, which are in their 8th year, celebrate the best of UK life sciences – outstanding innovation, fundraisers and achievements – underlining the pre-eminence of the UK sectors in the global marketplace.
Other winners included: Neil Woodford CBE for a Special Recognition Award; BioHub at Alderley Park for the UK Life Sciences Incubator Award and; Oxford Nanopore Technologies for the Best Established Medtech Company Award.
John Harris, CEO of OBN, said:
“We are thrilled with the high quality of nominees this year which made picking just one winner in each category very difficult. We work hard to keep the awards fresh and have introduced several new categories this year to reflect industry trends. The turn-out and support we’ve received is a true reflection of how buoyant our industry is and I would like to thank our sponsors for helping us make the OBN Awards the success it is today.”
To see the full list of winners, visit the OBN Awards website.