Biotech firm eyeing US expansion following £6.5m funding round

From left: Andy Thomas, Dan Jamieson, Gavin Bell

Biorelate, a Manchester-based biotech innovator, is targeting expansion in the US after a £6.5m Series A investment led by YFM Equity Partners and Maven Capital Partners.

Founded in 2014 and led by Daniel Jamieson, Biorelate curates dark biomedical knowledge to empower drug discovery with its proprietary AI platform, Galactic AI.

Galactic AI’s innovative technology uniquely combines natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to capture highly valuable biomedical data that pharmaceutical and life sciences organisations can use to improve decision making in their drug discovery programmes.

As drug discovery becomes increasingly more difficult to turn a profit, biopharmaceutical companies are investing more into AI and data-driven solutions that improve the chances of success.

These same approaches can also be instrumental in finding entirely new hypotheses unforeseen by human experts.

Biorelate is helping on both fronts by capturing billions of biomedical datapoints not found in existing databases that they use to form a more complete map of scientific research.

They then use this to support biopharma companies with target, biomarker and other related drug discovery challenges. Since launching Galactic AI in 2020, Biorelate has experienced significant growth and has brought on board leading global companies such as AstraZeneca and Idorsia, as well as a host of other undisclosed names.

The funding was raised through YFM’s VCTs, the Maven VCTs and Triple Point Ventures, with continued investment from NPIF-Maven Equity Finance, which is managed by Maven and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, as well as a group of angel investors from the Manchester Tech Trust.

Biorelate will use the investment to increase its commercial and technical capacity, as well as wider expansion into the US to tap into the industry’s largest market.

Gavin Bell, investment director, led the deal for Maven. The YFM team included Andy Thomas, Aaron Lowery and Ian Waterfield.

Biorelate’s Dan Jamieson said: ”Drug discovery is so exciting right now, as there are just so many incredible companies working on remarkable new therapeutics.

“Equally, we are at a time where there is a stupendous amount of untapped evidence, like cause-and-effect, sat dark and subsequently unused by these same companies.
“Our mission at Biorelate is to capture this untapped data and help them make sense of it. With this improved understanding we are empowering these companies to make better decisions and speed up the drug discovery process.”

Gavin Bell said: “Biorelate has grown significantly since we first backed the business at an early stage through NPIF Maven Equity Finance.

“It’s exciting to see an innovative deep tech business born in Manchester now develop globally.”

Andy Thomas, partner at YFM Equity Partners, said: “By quickly and effectively processing the growing and evolving swathe of publicly available biomedical data, Biorelate has the ability to be at the forefront of innovation in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. We are excited to be part of the next step in the business’s journey, and see huge potential for continued growth and expansion.”

Sean Hutchinson at the British Business Bank, said: “We are pleased that the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund is continuing to unlock the North’s growth potential through ambitious businesses like Biorelate, that make profound differences in their industries. Biorelate’s growth is a step forward for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, and NPIF is proud to have facilitated its development.”

Other advisers on the deal included: Craig Corporate, Sales Blueprint, Pannone Corporate, The Startup Factory, Catalysis, Lockton, Shoosmiths, Philip Hare & Associates, CMS and Hadley Appenine.

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