Causeway Sensors raises £1.5m investment to speed up bringing new drugs to market

Causeway Sensors has developed the Nano Sensor Platform to help speed up the time taken to bring new drugs to market, reduce the risks involved and improve decision making.

The investment comprises of £1.3m from the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund NI and £250,000 from an existing QUBIS investor.

Causeway Sensors was established in 2016 and its patented Nano Sensor Platform is the result of five years of high impact research and development following 20 years of research at Queens University Belfast.

Earlier this year it was confirmed that Causeway Sensors Ltd was awarded £3.3m in grant support from UK Research & Innovation as part of the Smart Nano NI consortium, led by Seagate Technology and another joint Kernel Capital/QUBIS portfolio company, Cirdan Imaging.

In co-ordination with the investment the board and executive team have been enhanced and restructured. This includes Dr Bob Pollard, founder taking on the role of executive president, Dr Antony Murphy is promoted to chief executive officer and Deirdre Francis, formerly of Intelesens has been appointed to the newly created role of finance director.

Niall Olden, managing partner, Kernel Capital, said: “There is an unmet need for instrumentation that can provide high value data in real time, online, throughout the drug development process, we believe Causeway Sensors can deliver on that need. Causeway is a great example of the deep tech that exists within the current QUBIS portfolio and we are delighted to once again support the team with their plans to bring this ground breaking technology into the market.”

David Moore, head of Spin-outs & Investments, QUBIS, continued: “This latest round of funding is the final stepping-stone on the path to commercialisation of Causeway’s technology and I want to take the opportunity to thank our investors for their continued support on our journey. This investment, along with the competitive grant-funding we were awarded from UKRI, will put Causeway in a strong osition to fully validate our first product with blue-chip pharmaceutical companies before entering the bioproduction market.”

Antony Murphy, CEO, Causeway Sensors, added: “The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI) was designed to help SMEs in NI to accelerate their growth. Invest NI has committed £15m of funding to this fund which is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020. Invest NI’s R&D support is part funded by ERDF under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you