Mills & Reeve advises Mercia Fund Management Limited on over £9.3m of investments

We have acted for the national technology investor, Mercia Fund Management on a series of investments worth more than £9.3 million in just over a year into 26 different companies.

Mercia Fund Management, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercia Technologies PLC, is one of the leading technology investors in the UK, works with pioneering UK businesses to help them grow, providing funding and expertise. Across the Group Mercia has c£220m of funds under management and more than 400 investments. 

The nationally renowned venture capital team at Mills & Reeve, led by partner Zickie Lim and assisted by principal associate Pippa Pearce, has advised Mercia on its portfolio investments, fund creation and fund structuring work over the last ten years. 

The latest rounds of funding will assist:

  • Afternoonify Ltd – a company operating a "software as a service" solution that automatically audits paid search accounts in multiple markets for hundreds of best practice and performance KPIs.
  • Aston Eyetech Limited – a spin out from Aston University which develops and licenses software to support the diagnosis of medical conditions of the eye and to support the sale of optical products.
  • Bioextraction Wales Limited - providers of a contract service to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, chemical, food industries or any industry that needs to separate key compounds from their base complex mixtures.
  • Canary Care Limited – providers of a unique system for elderly people that want to remain independent for longer using wireless and mobile technology to monitor activity and environment.
  • Chromition Limited – a spin-out from the University of Manchester developing, producing and supplying electronics and photo-luminescent products.
  • Customer Clever Ltd – a company offering a pioneering biometric solution designed to provide businesses with the crucial business intelligence they need to operate effectively and maximise returns.
  • Cyberowl Limited – a joint venture between Coventry University and Crossword Cybersecurity plc that is developing and commercialising a Bayesian statistics based network monitoring software product using a novel target centric technique in the area of network security and malicious behaviour monitoring.
  • Friendly Score UK Limited – providers of an online and social data credit scoring platform for banks, mobile phone companies and other credit service providers.
  • Genba Digital Limited – operators of a fully-automated, cloud-based, API driven digital logistics platform, which bridges the gap between publishers and resellers on a global basis.
  • Inocardia Limited – a spin-out from Coventry University focused on the provision of contract research services via the development of assays targeted at the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors.
  • In-Part Publishing Ltd – a business actively promoting new research concepts from universities to industry stakeholders using the company's online platform, which provides the potential for collaboration with industry.
  • Intelligent Health Ltd – an organisation dedicated to increasing physical activity and improving the health of communities around the world.
  • Love Me Beauty Limited - a subscription-based e-commerce business for beauty and lifestyle products.
  • Manchester Imaging Limited – a spinout from Manchester University specialising in diagnostic software and image analysis for dentistry.
  • Medherant Limited – a spin-out of the University of Warwick commercialising novel adhesive transdermal patch based products and solutions.
  • MIP Diagnostics Limited – a spin-out from the University of Leicester which has developed technology to provide Molecular Imprinted Polymers (MIPS) to the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and chemical research industries.
  • No Yetis Allowed Ltd – a company focusing on creating character driven mobile entertainment apps for a worldwide market that will allow recognisable, licensed characters to be released and downloaded.
  • Nu Vision Biotherapies Limited – a world leading corneal research group working towards solutions to sight saving problems.
  • Oxford Genetics Ltd – a specialist synthetic biology company focused on providing DNA, protein, virus and cell line solutions for mammalian expression and bio-production.
  • Pertinax Pharma Limited- a spin-out from the University of Bristol which is developing, manufacturing and supplying anti-infective technologies.
  • Pharos Global Limited – a developer of technology to provide financial institutions with the means to monitor investments against Sharia rules.
  • Sarissa Biomedical Limited – a company focused on the development and production of novel biosensors for the measurement of the purines and other neurochemicals, as indicators of neurological activity/disorder.
  • Sense Biodetection Limited – a molecular diagnostics company focused on improving healthcare decisions and processes by developing novel, user-centred, handheld tests in the fields of infections and oncology.
  • The Testing Cloud Limited – a load testing and performance testing company.
  • Trink Ltd- a business exploring exciting new opportunities in digital creation and sharing.
  • Wayve Ltd – developers of an app that allows you to build, deploy and analyse HTML5 advertising content across all screen sizes, including mobile and desktop.

Matt Mead, Chief Investment Officer of Mercia, said: “Over the last 12 months Mercia has once again been an extremely active investor in early stage and growing technology businesses throughout the country. With more than 50 companies in the Mercia Fund Management portfolio alone, we are delighted that the majority of portfolio companies are performing on or ahead of target. The incisive and responsive legal support provided by Mills & Reeve to our investments team has been vital in enabling us to achieve our investment ambitions – they have an ability to move mountains at short notice. 

Zickie Lim, said: “Mercia is clearly one of the leading UK investors in exciting fast growth businesses and new technologies. It has been thrilling to develop such a strong relationship with their investments team and this has also enabled us to get involved with some genuinely cutting edge businesses at the forefront of their markets or, indeed, developing new markets and demands”.

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