Europe’s deep tech innovation opportunity
From early stage inception to global impact
At our Annual Showcase we heard from three portfolio companies that are using deep tech to transform entire industries and sectors.
As Saul Klein said, new frontiers need new thinking and through our funds, LocalGlobe, Latitude and Solar, we’re investing in founders solving the biggest problems across New Palo Alto - the dense innovation ecosystem within a five hour train ride of our home in Somers Town. Having recently banished the fintech gloom, it was time to turn the spotlight on the companies building potential champions from New Palo Alto’s world-leading science base.
Transforming food safety: Spore.Bio
When food safety goes wrong, the results are devastating. Currently, most factories rely on old-fashioned Petri dish testing to detect bacterial contamination, which takes five days - long enough for potentially tainted products to reach consumers.
Amine Raji, co-founder and CEO of Spore.Bio, was working at Nestle in France, when the company was mired in a food safety scandal caused by contaminated pizzas. With a family background in food manufacturing, he was motivated to found Spore.Bio with two co-founders, CTO Maxime Mistretta, (PhD and Postdoctorate from Pasteur Institute in Microbiology) and COO Mohamed Tazi (second-time founder, sold previous company Gymlib to EGYM). Using advanced machine learning models, Spore.Bio’s device identifies the concentration of bacteria in everything from food and drink to pharmaceuticals and cosmetic products and can detect pathogens instantly, on the factory floor.
Giving manufacturers almost real-time insights, with unprecedented levels of traceability and transparency, allows them to address sources of contamination before they pose a public health risk. Paris-founded, Spore.Bio has POCs with major cosmetics and pharma companies and a further 150+ awaiting trials. We can’t wait to see the impact they will have globally.
Nature’s plastic alternative: Shellworks
While Spore.Bio detects harmful bacteria that could disrupt the food chain, Shellworks is harnessing the good bacteria present in the soil to make ‘nature’s plastic’. It’s created Vivomer, a biodegradable material that looks and acts like plastic but decomposes in your compost bin within 18 months. Made from bacteria, it's a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastics, which take centuries to break down. Currently used for beauty and cosmetic products, Vivomer has the potential to revolutionise packaging across industries.
Co-founders Insiya Jafferjee (Apple, Bose, Ford) and Amir Afshar (10+ years of design experience) met while studying at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London respectively. Together they’ve solved a problem that petrochemical companies have spent hundreds of millions trying to solve. This year they will ship 1.2 million products, as they take a slice out of the $45.3 billion personal care market, powering our plastic-free future.
Lidar for the brain: CoMind
Neurological conditions are the leading cause of illness and disability, affecting over 40% of the global population, and could double by 2050. CoMind is creating a completely new window into the brain and can replace current techniques which only provide a fractional insight into what is happening, or are extremely invasive. It uses photonics to enable non-invasive measuring of brain parameters, using a similar technology to Lidar for autonomous vehicles. With CoMind’s device, anyone from a nurse to a consultant can monitor blood flow, intracranial pressure and cerebral alternation at a patient’s bedside. Just a 10-second scan could prevent a fatal stroke.
Founder James Dacombe has surrounded himself with world-leading clinical authorities, including Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Marc Bloom, professor of anesthesiology and former Chief Neuroanesthesiologist at the University of Miami. CoMind’s technology has been used in trials in Barcelona and London, with a large scale clinical trial taking place across sites in the US. In the long term, the technology has applications beyond brain health and could be used on other areas of the body to derive insights and provide a light into what is happening under the skin like never before.
These three companies are transforming industries, and Phoenix Court is proud to support their groundbreaking work. Following their inspiring presentations, we hosted sessions on the Mansion House Compact and the need to shift more scale up capital into our most exciting tech companies. Sir Nigel Wilson, chairman of Canary Wharf Group, and Saul made sure we headed to lunch on a positive note:
the UK is a powerhouse in science, research, and technology. In fields like healthtech, renewable energy, fintech, insuretech and even nuclear fusion, we're neck and neck with the US. Unlocking the potential of tech innovation is key to driving long-term economic growth for the entire nation. But to truly empower these visionary founders, we need to unleash a wave of growth capital.
Discover why we believe a new generation of tech giants will be built on a foundation of pioneering science: