Edinburgh life sciences firm behind revolutionary tech secures £4 million funding

An Edinburgh-based life sciences company behind a new approach to analysing cells has received a £4 million funding injection.

Cytomos is an Edinburgh-based life sciences company that has developed a proprietary new approach to analysing cells and plans to scale up market-testing of its technology platform Cytomos Dielectric Spectroscopy (CDS). Picture: Mike Wilkinson

The investment into Cytomos was led by existing backer Archangels with participation from Old College Capital, Scottish Enterprise and new investor British Business Bank. The firm’s technology platform, Cytomos Dielectric Spectroscopy (CDS), has been developed to address the “unmet needs of the biopharma industry”. It is said to provide a high-speed, scalable and low-cost revolution beyond current cell analysis systems.

The fresh investment will enable the company to significantly advance the development of its technology and “substantially” expand its team. The firm is targeting commercialisation of its platforms in 2024.

Chief executive David Rigterink said: “We are uniquely positioned in harnessing the power of consumer electronics technology to meet the emerging, complex needs of the bioprocess industry. On the back of a very successful year for Cytomos, this new funding will now allow us to scale up our engagement with industry partners. We truly believe that, through our CDS technology, we offer a powerful platform which will help the scientific community bring novel therapies to market faster and radically reduce costs by making better informed, game-changing decisions a lot earlier.”

Sarah Hardy, director and head of new investments at Edinburgh-based investment syndicate Archangels, said: “As a highly innovative, Scottish early-stage life science company with global horizons, Cytomos is an excellent fit for our investment portfolio. Its ambitious vision to improve real time cell analysis in formats to better suit the end users will revolutionise the development and commercialisation of products in the bioprocessing and cell and gene therapies spaces.”

Kerry Sharp, director of entrepreneurship and investment at Scottish Enterprise, added: “We’ve worked with Cytomos for many years so it’s great to see the team expanding and the company secure the investment needed to advance the ground-breaking CDS platform towards commercialisation next year.”

Over the past year, the firm has grown its operational management and strategic team with the appointments of Rigterink as chief executive and Lindsay Fraser as chief scientific officer. They have driven the company’s industry engagement with key players in the bioprocessing and cell and gene therapy space.