Quarter of a million funding boost for tech start up, GeckoLabs 

 
Software startup GeckoLabs announced today that it has received investment of £250,000 to broaden its product range and open a new office in London, creating 10 jobs.

Venture capital firm AngelLab led the investment through it’s Venture Partner Andrew Weisz, who will also join the GeckoLabs board, with additional funding provided by the London Co-Investment Fund. As well as growing its team, GeckoLabs will use the funding to strengthen its marketing activity and develop new tools for its customers. The company also hopes to expand in to North America and Asia in the near future.

Founded in Edinburgh in 2012, GeckoLabs develops modern cloud-based software to help educational institutions manage and improve their recruitment processes. It currently works with over 30 of the UK’s top universities and colleges, including Robert Gordon University, Newcastle University, University of East Anglia, University of East London and University of Southampton.

The business is the brainchild of Matthew Lanham, a digital entrepreneur who has been involved in the Edinburgh tech scene for over 10 years and who started his first business, a web design company, aged just 17.

GeckoLabs help universities and colleges increase their success by making best use of modern technology to provide their students with a highly personalised experience driven by the ability for the university or college to capture data and engage with the student in real time.  

The student recruitment process is becoming increasingly fragmented, and therefore capturing and acting upon data in real time is only becoming more important. Through removing the geographic, and technological barriers that exist, GeckoLabs helps its clients stand out in the increasingly competitive environment of student marketing and recruitment.

Matthew Lanham, founder and CEO of GeckoLabs, explained the problem faced by admission teams who rely on traditional means of capturing data.

He said: “Universities and Colleges are not maximising every interaction with students, and therefore missing out on potential enrolments. We’ve taken time to understand the student recruitment process, and identify where improvements can be made by embracing the latest technology.”

Lanham continued: “We are delighted to have received investment from AngelLab and the London Co-investment Fund, and to welcome Andrew Weisz to the board. The incoming investment will help us take the business to the next level, particularly with our ambitions to grow overseas. This is an incredibly exciting time for the business and this funding will mean we can achieve our objectives of expanding the team, opening our base in London and adding new products to the portfolio.”

AngelLab is a London venture capital firm that invests in exceptional tech entrepreneurs in the UK and Europe. In the last three years it has completed 30 investments in tech startups.

AngelLab Managing Partner Andrew Fullerton said: “The educational sector is an important and valuable growth market in which we are keen to invest.  We are delighted to support the excellent team lead by CEO and founder Matt Lanham in his plan to increase the breadth of the solutions on offer from GeckoLabs and the roll out their software to new customers both in the UK and globally.”

The London Co-Investment Fund is founded and managed by Funding London and Capital Enterprise. It has raised £25m from the Mayor of London’s Growing Places Fund to co-invest in high growth tech science and digital startups in London.

During 2012, Gecko participated in ignite100, one of the UK’s top tech accelerator programmes, and graduated with investment from Northstar Ventures, IP Group, and four angel investors.

TxCell granted US Orphan Drug Designation for Col-Treg in the treatment of chronic non-infectious uveitis

A first-in-man clinical study is planned to start in 2016, with top line results expected end 2017

Valbonne, France, September 14, 2015 – TxCell SA (FR0010127662 – TXCL), a biotechnology company developing innovative, personalized T cell immunotherapies using antigen specific regulatory T-cells (Ag-Tregs) for severe chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, announces today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Orphan Products Development has granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) to TxCell's Col-Treg, a personalized T cell immunotherapy using collagen-II specific regulatory T-cells, for the treatment of chronic non-infectious uveitis. This followed the ODD already received for the product in Europe.

Autoimmune uveitis is a severe inflammatory condition of the eye, often resulting in permanent vision damage. Uveitis is one of the leading causes of blindness in the developed world. No treatment is currently approved for the patients that become refractory to corticosteroid compounds. 

“The Orphan Drug Designation in both the US and EU is the latest significant step for the development of Col-Treg, a novel and promising therapeutic approach for autoimmune uveitis, resulting from TxCell’s ASTrIA platform. TxCell applied for and received Orphan Drug Designation in the US and EU, which will allow us to expedite Col-Treg through development. This ultimately will benefit those suffering from autoimmune uveitis, a truly debilitating condition of the eye. TxCell plans to move Col-Treg into a first clinical study in 2016, with top line results expected end 2017,” said Stephane Boissel, CEO, TxCell. 

The FDA Orphan Drug Designation provides a special status to drugs and biologics intended to treat, diagnose or prevent rare diseases and disorders. Rare diseases and disorders are defined as affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. In particular, this designation provides for a seven-year marketing exclusivity period against competition as well as certain incentives, including federal grants and tax credits. This adds to the benefits of the EU ODD, which includes 10 years of market exclusivity from product launch as well as protocol assistance and possible exemptions or reductions in regulatory fees during development. 

About Col-Treg

Col-Treg (Col-Treg cells), is a personalized T cell immunotherapy product, based on the properties of autologous collagen-II specific regulatory T lymphocytes. A first-in-man clinical study in autoimmune uveitis, a rare disease of the eye, is planned to start in 2016. After intravenous administration, Col-Treg cells home to the site of inflammation where they are activated by the specific antigen. The Col-Tregs then act by locally releasing immune suppressive factors, cell-cell contacts and cytotoxic activity to treat the inflammation. Col-Treg has Orphan Drug Designation in the EU and in the US and is classified as an Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP), by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). 

About Autoimmune Uveitis

Autoimmune uveitis is a serious inflammatory condition of the eye and often results in permanent vision damage. Uveitis is a rare disease with a prevalence of around 35-50/100,000[1]. Autoimmune uveitis constitutes 80-90% of cases[2]. Despite its rarity, in developed countries this autoimmune disease causes 10-15% of legal blindness. The condition also leads to 30,000 new cases of blindness per year in the US alone[2] and affects around 168,000 people in Europe[3]. It is estimated that 30,000 autoimmune uveitis patients per year are refractory to approved steroids treatments in the US and EU alone.

About TxCell: www.txcell.com  

TxCell develops innovative, personalized T cell immunotherapies for the treatment of severe chronic inflammatory diseases with high medical need. TxCell has created ASTrIA, a unique and proprietary product platform based on the properties of autologous antigen-specific regulatory T lymphocytes (Ag-Tregs). The company has initiated a phase IIb study of its lead product candidate, Ovasave(R) in refractory Crohn’s disease patients. This follows a phase I/IIa study in the same patient population reporting positive clinical efficacy and good tolerability. TxCell’s second product candidate, Col-Treg is for the treatment of autoimmune uveitis, a rare disease of the eye. Listed on the regulated market Euronext Paris, TxCell is a spin-off of Inserm (France’s National Institute for Health and Medical Research). TxCell has 66 employees based both at the headquarters located in the Sophia Antipolis technology park, Nice, France and at its manufacturing site in Besançon.

[1] According to EU Regulatory Workshop – EMA/450332/2012

[2] According to GlobalData Report GDHC008POA - Dec. 2013

[3] According to EMA/COMP/105735/2013

Disclaimer:

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Although the company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.

NVM Private Equity supports the growth plans of business energy comparison and switching service, Love Energy Savings.

NVM Private Equity (NVM) has invested £4.5 million development capital into Love Energy Savings (LES), a comparison and procurement service specialising in helping SMEs identify the optimal gas and electricity supplier and tariff to suit their needs.  The management team are planning to grow the business organically over the next five years, helping more SMEs navigate the complex world of energy pricing and tariffs.  With a growing portfolio of SME customers and a strong customer service ethos, LES positions itself as a trusted partner for SMEs. 

Bolton based LES offers full market comparison across a wide range of panel suppliers and manages any resultant switching process on behalf of the SME from initial agreement to completion.  This is achieved through a sophisticated bespoke technology platform which has been developed by the LES in-house team. 

Deregulation of the UK gas and electricity market in 2002 created the opportunity for domestic and non-domestic users to switch energy providers at the end of their existing contracts for more suitable and cheaper tariffs.  LES was established in 2007 in order to target the non-domestic energy user market which, whilst comprising around c2.4 million SME contracts, had been slower to embrace the opportunities offered by deregulation than the domestic market.  Now, as LES’s portfolio has grown to almost 16,000 live client contracts there are clear signs that SMEs are increasingly using the services offered by intermediaries such as LES.  It is anticipated that many more such businesses will look to switch their gas and electricity provider in the coming years. 

Andy Leach, the lead Investment Partner at NVM on the transaction commented: “We are delighted to be supporting a young and vibrant business such as LES in the achievement of their ambitious growth plans.  Phil and his team have built a great business in a relatively short period based on a market leading IT platform, where the culture of customer service and transparency is at the heart of the way they operate.  The business energy market is too complex for most small businesses to properly understand and LES, with access to a wide range of tariffs and an intimate understanding of the market, combined with an ability to take away the administrative burden that can go with switching, is perfectly placed to improve the ability of SMEs to buy energy better.”

Love Energy Savings Managing Director, Phil Foster commented: “NVM came highly recommended as the perfect partner to allow LES to achieve its ambitions which has been proven to be the case. I’m delighted that we’ve been able to move forward with them and I’m very excited about the future. Having Andy and his team on board will provide LES with a catalyst to reach out to every business to allow them to make smarter choices regarding their energy at contract renewal in a simple and transparent way, allowing them to generate more profit through savings.”