Left to right: Mark Beaumont, partner at Eos; Jessica Birt, Concinnity co-founder; Dr Matthew Dale, Concinnity co-founder, David Venables, chair of board; Susan Rosser, chair of scientific advisory board (Image: Stewart Attwood)

Concinnity Genetics raises £3 million

Concinnity Genetics has successfully completed an oversubscribed £3 million seed funding round. The funding round was spearheaded by Eos Advisory,

Facebook
LinkedIn
X

Concinnity Genetics has successfully completed an oversubscribed £3 million seed funding round.

The funding round was spearheaded by Eos Advisory, with backing from Scottish Enterprise, Maven Capital Partners, and Old College Capital, the venture investment fund associated with the University of Edinburgh.

Co-founded by Jessica Birt and Matthew Dale, Concinnity is focused on creating innovative control mechanisms through its artificial intelligence platform and expertise in synthetic biology.

These RNA-based systems allow for precise regulation of gene therapies, enabling them to respond to and mitigate their own side effects.

This funding will facilitate Concinnity’s transition from the lab of Professor Susan Rosser and the UKRI UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology at the University of Edinburgh, allowing the company to set up operations in Scotland’s life sciences hub.

The investment will be utilised to launch three new initiatives aimed at developing control systems for critical applications in the cell and gene therapy sector, in addition to further advancing existing control systems, with the goal of gathering essential data to forge partnerships with customers.

Chief Executive Birt remarked:

“Our ambition is to be the go-to partner for gene control to make gene and cell therapies as safe as possible.”

“This commitment from our investors, building on the ongoing support from Scottish Enterprise, speaks to the potential they see in our work, and we look forward to using the funding to further develop our technology.”

For the past two years, Concinnity has received support from Scottish Enterprise as part of its High Growth Spinout Programme, which has helped in developing its technology and acquiring data for commercial validation that has facilitated this seed round’s completion.

Kerry Sharp, director of entrepreneurship and investment at Scottish Enterprise, said: “This investment round clearly demonstrates the huge potential of Concinnity’s technology, which has been recognised by investors.

“Life sciences is one of Scotland’s key growth industries and our investment and ongoing business support will help Concinnity convert and scale its innovation into international growth, delivering maximum benefits for Scotland’s economy.”

Andrew McNeill, managing partner at Eos, said: “By combining synthetic biology and AI-machine learning, the Concinnity technology has been described as the ‘holy grail for emerging gene therapies’, making such treatments both more effective and safer.”

Andrea Taylor, chief executive of Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service, added: “Sophisticated gene control systems have the potential to revolutionise advanced therapeutics, enabling new kinds of treatments that will impact future health – so we are proud to continue to support Concinnity Genetics on their translational journey from lab to clinic.”

Related Stories from Silicon Scotland

Scientists in Scotland develop new method to understand wildfires past and present
arctic digital twin initiative
Aberdeen Uni to Create Arctic Digital Twin to Monitor Climate Change
Natural tree colonisation may not always produce carbon capture benefits
10,000 patients in Scotland benefit from robotic-assisted surgery
Aberdeen scientists seek to bypass popular obesity drug’s side effects
Scottish scientists develop AI to detect dementia through eye scans

Other Stories from Silicon Scotland