Axol Bioscience Gets $3-Million Capital Investment

On August 15, 2017, Calculus Capital (London), a private equity firm, announced that it invested £2.5 million ($3.2 million) in Axol Bioscience (Cambridge, UK), a provider of stem cells produced from reprogrammed human blood and tissue cells.

Axol, founded in 2012, supplies human cells, especially live human neurons, created by stem cell technology to pharma companies and research institutions. The cells are used for medical research, disease modeling, and drug development. The company generates stem cells from blood and tissue cells extracted from healthy and diseased patients. These cells can self-renew and may be used to become any tissue in the human body. Each cell line that Axol produces is identical to the previous production batch, ensuring quality and consistency for research and drug development projects.

“Axol Bioscience is doing very important work; its products and services-stem cells and the culture systems required to maintain them-are essential to gene-based medical research. Our investment will enable Axol to grow and develop more product lines that are able to make a real and effective contribution to medical research efforts to combat killer diseases,” said Alexandra Lindsay, investment director at Calculus Capital, in a company press release.

“The market for our products is growing rapidly, all around the world, and the funding from Calculus will help us to make the most of that opportunity through new product development and increasing our sales and marketing capabilities,” said Axol CEO Yichen Shi, PhD, in the press release.