Investing in
Mogrify
Mogrify® is a UK regenerative medicine company whose mission is to transform the lives of patients through a novel class of in vivo reprogramming therapies across otology, ophthalmology, diabetes, and other disease areas with a high unmet clinical need.
The Company has developed a set of proprietary technologies that leverage transcriptomic and epigenetic sequencing combined with computational modeling to predict the factors required for direct cellular reprogramming and the maintenance of cell identity.
These platforms, for the first time, make it possible to both systematically enhance the efficiency of stem cell-derived forward programming and directly convert (transdifferentiate) mature cell types into other mature cell types (or states) without going through a pluripotent stem cell- or progenitor cell-state. Deployed directly in situ it is the latter uniquely positions the company to be able to generate cell types lost through disease or injury and potentially restore organ function directly inside the human body.
The platform is protected by the foundational patent application and a suite of additional patent applications covering improvements and extensions to the core platform and specific cell conversions. Uniquely positioned to address a regenerative medicine market estimated to be worth £120 billion GBP ($150 billion USD) by 2028, Mogrify is commercializing its technology via a combination of in vivo reprogramming therapy development, co-development partnerships, as well as the exploitation of the platform in other therapeutic and non-therapeutic applications.
Current
Investors
Since commercial inception in 2019, the Company has raised over £37 million GBP ($49 million USD) funding from leading venture and angel investors including; Ahren Innovation Capital, Trend Investment Group, Dr. Darrin M. Disley, OBE, Dr. Jonathan Milner and Joe Caddell, as well as strategic investments from Astellas Venture Management.
Ahren Innovation Capital
Ahren LP is an investment fund that supports transformational companies at the cutting edge of deep science and deep tech. The technologies of its Founding Partners are today valued more than $100 billion combined. A group of highly diverse, creative and original thinkers leading their domains, Ahren believes in taking considered risk that will deliver superior rewards— capturing a generational opportunity to provide smart capital to deep technology pioneers. With a philosophy espousing the importance of relationships and trust, Ahren provides long-term capital and support to exceptional founders and teams, empowering them to achieve the unimaginable. Ahren Innovation Capital was founded by Alice Newcombe-Ellis, together with Science Partners Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, Professor John Daugman, Professor Zoubin Ghahramani, Professor Steve Jackson, Professor Andy Parker, Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, Lord Martin Rees and Sir Gregory Winter.
ASTELLAS VENTURE MANAGEMENT LLC
Astellas Venture Management LLC (AVM) is the corporate venture capital organization dedicated to reinforcing Astellas Pharma Inc. (Astellas) to accomplish the strategic goals. The venture capital activity of AVM is designated since 2005. Astellas, the ultimate parent company of AVM, headquartered in Tokyo is actively engaged in business as an R&D-driven global pharmaceutical company with the business philosophy to “Contribute toward improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products”. Through strategic investments in private early-stage companies, the funds aim to mutual-interact with Astellas, leading to partnering/collaboration in the future. AVM will be able to provide portfolio companies with invaluable R&D advice and assistance.
TREND INVESTMENT GROUP
Trend Investment Group is a Guernsey-based Venture Capital fund focused on the investment of biotech, healthcare, deep tech companies across the UK, Europe, and the US. We have a close collaborative and inclusive team of partners consisting of entrepreneurs, scientists, academic researchers, and financial experts with extensive investment experience from pre-series A to pre-IPO. Since establishment in 2016, Trend has invested in over 20 high potential and high growth start-ups. We are also committed to supporting companies’ growth by fostering collaborations and sharing our industry insight, market knowledge, and resources.
DR. DARRIN M. DISLEY OBE
Darrin is a renowned scientist, entrepreneur, angel investor and enterprise champion who has started, grown, or invested in over 40 start-up life science, technology and social enterprises, raising $600 million USD in business financing and closing $700 million USD in commercial deals. He was CEO of Horizon Discovery Group plc for 11 years, during which he led the Company from start-up through a $113 million USD IPO, and rapid scale-up powered by multiple acquisitions of US peer companies to become a global market leader in gene editing and gene modulation technologies. He was awarded a lifetime Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2016 for his work in promoting enterprise across the UK and appointed OBE in 2018 for his services to business and enterprise in the healthcare sector.
DR. JONATHAN MILNER
Jonathan, Founder of Abcam plc, is an experienced entrepreneur and investor and is passionate about supporting UK life science and high-tech start-ups. He has provided considerable investment and support to over 60 companies and has assisted three technology companies to IPO on the London AIM Stock exchange.
Jonathan gained his doctorate in Molecular Genetics at Leicester University after graduating in Applied Biology at Bath. From 1992–95, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Bath, following which he worked at the University of Cambridge in the lab of Professor Tony Kouzarides studying cancer. He identified the market opportunity for supplying high-quality antibodies to support protein interaction studies, and in 1998, founded Abcam with David Cleevely and Professor Tony Kouzarides.
Jonathan is Chairman of Axol Bioscience Ltd and Camallergy Ltd and non-executive director of PhoreMost Ltd, Syndicate Room Ltd and HealX Ltd.
JOE CADDELL
Joe has an honours degree in Physics and Theoretical Physics and a Masters in Engineering. He has a lifelong interest in science and technology in all their forms.
He began his career in Information Technology, coding in mainframe assembler, and went on to lead software development teams and large-scale IT infrastructure operations across multiple industries and countries.
Joe is an active early-stage angel investor, focusing primarily on high-potential technology start-ups. He initially invested in Mogrify’s seed round and has been committed to realizing the technology’s potential for in vivo reprogramming and other therapeutic applications ever since.
Outside of Mogrify, Joe is currently a director of Ceryx Medical, which is developing a novel treatment for heart failure. Its external device is in human safety trials in hospitals in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
