Dec 5, 2023

Newcastle biotech business CellRev seals £1.4m investment to ramp up work The Newcastle University spin-out has investment from the North East Innovation Fund and a grant from Innovate UK 13:32, 5 DEC 2023 Get all the latest business news from the North East straight to your inbox Invalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later. More Newsletters We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info Thank you for subscribing! Invalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later. Sign Up × Newcastle University spin-out CellRev has secured £1.4m in investment funds to scale up its work. The bio and foodtech company, which was spun out of Newcastle University in 2019 by Dr Martina Miotto under the name CellulaREvolution, aims to address major production challenges in the clean meat production tech sector, and to help change our future meat consumption habits. The company’s technology provides cellular product developers and manufacturers with a scalable, cost-efficient platform that means cells for gene therapies and lab grown meat can be produced more quickly, efficiently and in greater quantities. The company’s ‘continuous processing’ platform has garnered interest from around the work, and is poised for a full launch next year. The startup has raised £1.05m in an investment round led by the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, alongside global investor Happiness Capital and CPT Capital. CellRev has also secured £330,000 of grant funding from Innovate UK through its Future Economy Investor Partnership programme. CellRev CEO Chris Green said the company’s suite of technologies are of great interest to those involved in innovative cell and gene therapies and cultured meat because the global production of cells is forecast to soar over the next decade. Dr Martina Miotto founded the firm while completing her PhD in Corneal Tissue Engineering, when she made a breakthrough discovery while working with cells. The breakthrough provided the basis for CellRev’s technology and, together with co-founder Che Connon, professor of tissue engineering at Newcastle University, the pair continued ongoing lab research before spinning out the research from to create the standalone company. Chris Green, CEO of CellRev, said: “2024 is shaping up to be a defining year for CellRev with a significant product launch and some big customer collaborations in the pipeline. Continuous processing continues to be labelled an ‘unlock’ for an industry struggling with scale, cost, and product consistency challenges so finally being able to get our product into the hands of customers is huge. I can’t thank Northstar, our existing investors, and IUK enough for their continued support.” Thomas O’Neill, investment manager at Northstar Ventures, said: “We are delighted to support CellRev with further funding, alongside co-investors and Innovate UK. CellRev has developed leading technology with potential applications across many high growth and exciting sectors and this additional funding will enable them to capitalise on the significant opportunities they have in their pipeline.” Story Saved You can find this story in   My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Follow BusinessLive Most Recent