RAINBOW SEED FUND APPOINTS MIKE ROMANOS AS VENTURE PARTNER

Rainbow Seed Fund, the UK government-backed fund dedicated to kick-starting promising technology companies with a focus on synthetic biology, has appointed Dr Mike Romanos as consultant venture partner.

Mike will be supporting Rainbow in its investment decisions and providing general advice and strategic guidance to portfolio companies to help maximise their potential.

Mike brings an exceptional breadth and depth of experience in drug development, technology and commercialisation gained over many years in the biotech, pharma and academic sectors. Most recently as CEO he built the BBSRC spin-out Crescendo Biologics Ltd into a leading antibody fragment platform and development company. Previously he held senior global positions in GlaxoSmithKline R&D where he had significant impact on strategy, technology and pipeline across therapeutic areas and modalities.

Rainbow Seed Fund investment manager Oliver Sexton said: “We are delighted to have someone of Mike’s calibre working with us. His outstanding scientific and commercial background will be invaluable in informing our investment decisions and in helping our portfolio companies succeed.”

The Rainbow Seed Fund is managed by Midven, a privately owned commercial fund manager with a successful track record of investing in small and medium-sized enterprises. It has offices in Birmingham, Nottingham and Oxford.

Mike said: “Rainbow Seed Fund has an important role in the UK biotech ecosystem to catalyse the early stages of commercialisation by helping to bring forward new companies into the sector. I very much valued their contribution in building Crescendo Biologics and am now delighted to be able to help Rainbow in their important mission.”

TxCell to present its cellular immunotherapy developments at leading investor conferences

Valbonne, France, September 28, 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 Stephane Boissel, CEO, TxCell and other senior management will either attend, present to, and/or meet investors at a number of leading forthcoming investor conferences.

These investor conferences include:

15th Annual Biotech in Europe Forum, organized by Sachs Associates, Basel, Switzerland - September 29 – 30, 2015

Société Générale Healthcare & Biotechnology Conference, Paris, France - November 5, 2015

3rd Annual EU Advanced Therapies Investor Day organized by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, London, UK – November 12, 2015

3rd European Healthcare Conference organized by Bryan Garnier, Paris, France - November 12 – 13, 2015

Salon Actionaria, Paris, France - November 20 – 21, 2015

The 19th Oddo forum, organized by Oddo, Lyon, France - January 7 – 8, 2016

JP Morgan 34th Annual Healthcare Conference, San Francisco, US - January 11 – 15, 2016

NobleCon12, the 12th Annual Emerging Growth Investor Conference, organized by Noble Financial Capital Markets, Florida, US - January 19 – 20, 2016.

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.

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. 

AccessPay predicts 400% growth for 2015

Manchester fintech firm cites ‘explosive growth’, gears up for further expansion

Manchester, UK, 28 September 2015: AccessPay, the provider of payment automation and business intelligence, has confirmed its plans for rapid expansion following substantial year-on-year growth. The company predicts a growth trajectory of 400% for 2015, its strongest to date, and plans to significantly increase its workforce by the end of the year.

AccessPay, an early adopter of new technology and innovation in the payment and cash management sector, was founded in 2012 and now serves nearly 300 corporates and financial institutions including Barclays, Regus and The Co-operative. The company also recently confirmed its commitment as one of the first vendors to provide aggregation services for the Faster Payments New Access Model.

The firm is headquartered in Manchester’s iconic City Tower and is upbeat about Manchester’s potential to flourish as the UK’s next major fintech hub. With access to a strong talent pool and the city expected to outpace Berlin, Paris and Tokyo for job creation over the next five years, AccessPay are confident in their growth strategies for 2015 and beyond.

Ali Moiyed, Founder of AccessPay, explains: “The last three years have seen AccessPay go from strength to strength. With a strong team in place and following the recent appointments of Anish Kapoor as CEO and John Wordley as Head of Sales, we’re confident about growth prospects for the remainder of the year, in both domestic and international markets. As we scale up and explore global opportunities, Manchester and the UK’s position as burgeoning fintech hubs will stand us in good stead. The future’s bright for AccessPay and Manchester’s fintech scene.”

Anish Kapoor CEO, will be taking part in a panel discussion at the Innovate Finance “FinTech in Manchester” event exploring the city's accomplishments as a thriving fintech hub on 30th September 2015, at the Barclays Escalator. Speaking alongside other key industry figures, including VC Eileen Burbidge, UK Treasury's Special Envoy for FinTech, Anish will be discussing what modern fintech firms are doing to disrupt incumbents, why they choose to locate in Manchester and where innovation in this space is aimed.