Ion in the fire: Metrion Biosciences closes £3.7m Series B equity finance round
Metrion Biosciences will deploy its just-closed £3.7million Series B equity financing to further expand its Granta Park labs, invest in specialist equipment and enhance global marketing activities.
Metrion, which was founded in 2015, is a specialist ion channel contract research organisation providing drug discovery services to pharmaceutical and bioscience customers.
The company provides customers with access to a range of high-quality ion channel assays on a fee-for-service or collaboration basis.
Metrion Biosciences’ ion channel expertise includes an industry leading panel of in vitro cardiac ion channel safety assays, translational native cell and phenotypic assays for neurological and cardiotoxicity testing, and a range of other ion channel screening services such as cell line development and optimisation.
Services provided include tailored assay formats, data analysis and reporting solutions, effective project management and quality assured data packages.
The £3.7m of new equity financing includes £2.5m from lead investor Maven Capital Partners (Maven) and £1m from existing investor, Gresham House Ventures (Gresham House).
Maya Ward, investment director at Gresham House Ventures, said: “As the timelines, cost and complexity of taking a drug to market continue to rise, we see increasing demand for expert, specialist providers such as Metrion to assist the biopharma industry in navigating these challenges.
“The management team’s deep insight into ion channels and specialist electrophysiology equipment ensures Metrion is well placed to take advantage of the sizeable market opportunity. We look forward to supporting the business in its next phase of growth.”
David Milroy, partner at Maven, noted: “The Metrion team are highly regarded in the drug discovery industry and are ideally placed to capitalise on an increasing understanding of ion channel biology and the resulting heightened interest in therapeutics targeting these channels. Maven has a strong track record of backing life science businesses such as BioAscent, another CRO, which has performed very strongly since the Maven VCTs invested in 2018.
“I am very much looking forward to working with Andy [Southan] and his team and to drawing on Maven’s experience with similar life science businesses and many other SMEs to help scale this exciting business.”
Metrion Biosciences also announced a series of board changes. Dr David Milroy has joined the board as Maven’s investor director and Steve Carle has replaced Maya Ward as Gresham’s board representative. At the same time, Dr Marc Rogers, Dr Barry Kenny and Mark Keogh have retired as non-executive directors of the company.
Dr Keith McCullagh, chairman, Metrion Biosciences, said: “I am pleased to welcome Maven as a new investor in Metrion.
“Andy Southan, Metrion’s CEO, and I are delighted that David Milroy, an experienced scientist and business investor, will join the board as Maven’s investor director.
“We also welcome Steve Carle to the board and thank Maya Ward for her support of the round on behalf of Gresham.
“Finally, we would like to thank Barry Kenny, Mark Keogh and Marc Rogers as they step down from the board, for their experienced advice and unwavering commitment to the company over many years.”
