Dear , 

Protein science is poised to catalyse profound changes in the way that drugs are discovered and diseases are diagnosed. Despite this immense potential, the tools currently used for characterising proteins rely largely on technology – for example immunoassays and optical spectroscopy - that has not changed for half a century; this technology lag has left protein scientists encumbered by tools in common use that are imprecise, time-consuming, costly or all three of the above.

Fluidic Analytics is bringing to market a revolutionary line of tools for protein characterisation. Based on a fundamentally new way of characterising proteins, their technology platform enables dramatic improvements in precision, accuracy, convenience and speed to be realised in applications from lab tools to in vitro diagnostic to consumer health.

The Technology
The company’s technology is based on the unique behaviour of protein solutions in steady-state laminar flow. This approach allows them to distinguish proteins in simple solutions, cell lysates or even complex mixtures like blood plasma by separating them (in sequential, near-simultaneous steps) based on their physical properties, then quantifying each resolved protein in a highly sensitive, highly precise manner. And because the technology works best in extremely small volumes under physiological conditions, even highly complex protein solutions can be characterised rapidly, in small sample volumes and without extensive sample preparation.

Fluidic Analytics is focused on bringing disruptive tools to the lab analytics market as its first priority. By proving the quality and utility of their technology with products addressing crucial needs of the most technologically critical user group possible, the company will establish objective, transparent and comprehensive evidence of the most crucial aspect of the technology: that it provides reliable, repeatable real-world benefit to users.

All of the company’s products comprise a benchtop reader plus a single-use, disposable microfluidic chip. The reader includes an Android based, cloud connected graphical user interface that harnesses many of the modern software design principles from the smartphone industry, while the disposable chip contains the key elements of the core steady-state laminar-flow technology and will form the basis of a long-term sustainable revenue stream.

The Business Model
The design philosophy underlying all of Fluidic Analytics’ products seeks to provide tangible benefits to its customers via three distinct, impactful streams.
• Modules
• Disposables
• Cloud-based data management
These three streams in turn provide the Company with three distinct routes to capture value and spread revenue risk for its shareholders in the long term.

Market Opportunity
The immediate addressable market for the Flow Mk-1, company’s launch product in protein quantitation, is estimated to be worth US$250m.

Building on the commercial foothold established by the Flow Mk-1, Fluidic Analytics will market second-generation lab-based analytics products that will offer additional capabilities and address market segments estimated at between US$600m and US$3.5bn each.

The Team
Anthony Colletta, Chairman, is an experienced financier, executive and director in the life sciences industry. Dr Colletta has managed more than 50 healthcare and life sciences investments and multi-hundred-million-pound portfolios. He currently acts as an angel investor and independent director and has sat on the board of more than 15 small-cap companies that have achieved successful exits.

Andrew Lynn, Chief Executive Officer, is an entrepreneur and executive with a focus on early-stage life-sciences and technology opportunities. His efforts have earned him recognition in Europe as an inaugural winner of a Science|Business Academic Enterprise Award and in the US as a member of Technology Review Magazine’s TR35 list of the world’s top young innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs.

Tuomas Knowles, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, holds a personal Professorship in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and is also a Fellow of St John’s College Cambridge. Professor Knowles has received a number of distinguished awards, most recently from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Newman Foundation and the European Research Council. Professor Knowles has co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

The Investment Case
It is clear that, compared to the rapid advances in nucleic acid characterisation, corresponding advances in the study of proteins – the direct markers of disease onset – have been negligible. As stated earlier, the tools relied upon by protein scientists are antiquated and consequently imprecise, time-consuming and costly. We concur with the company that there is a pressing need for new analytical tools for protein characterisation and we are very excited at the possibility that this company and its products will have a significant role to play in this transformation.

The Fluidic team is talented and ambitious and the commercial opportunities are very significant. The challenge for the next phase of development is to roll-out the Mk1 product and start to capitalise on the technology’s undoubted potential.

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