Trio of North East investment funds join forces to support Newcastle Uni spinout

A new spinout company from Newcastle University is targeting multibillion-dollar markets for research and therapy, with help from seed investment from three North East investment funds joining forces with a biotech industry specialist to support the spinout company.

Maven Capital Partners, CPI Enterprises, Northstar Ventures and TCS Biosciences have together provided MarraBio with an initial, undisclosed round of seed investment funding.

MarraBio Ltd is developing technology to produce alternatives to bioactive proteins, which are some of the most expensive man-made materials used in industry. Using technology originally developed at Newcastle University which has been licenced exclusively to the company, MarraBio can manufacture proteins which mimic the function of conventional proteins at much lower cost and with improved performance.

Aidan Courtney, MarraBio’s executive chairman, commented: “This is an outstanding investment syndicate. Our technology has the potential to accelerate the development of new medicines and to make the production of animal-free meat commercially viable. But this will only be achieved with significant financial, commercial and technical support. So, I am very pleased to have such strength and depth in our investors at this early stage, and that much of our funding is coming from North East investors. This augments the support we have received from Newcastle University to create the company.”

Products developed by MarraBio will ultimately target burgeoning markets for biomedical research and therapy, as well as the production of cultivated meat which is predicted to be worth over $20bn by the end of the decade.