We round up the big investment stories from the past week
£6.5 million government-funded hub to help NHS slash carbon footprint
Developing new ways to help the NHS dramatically cut its carbon footprint will be the focus of a new UK-wide hub funded by £6.5 million in government awards.
The new funding is from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Overall, they are investing £42 million on seven hubs, each facing a difference net zero challenge.
The new health and social care pathways hub brings together a range of university and healthcare partners throughout the UK, to tackle the challenge of helping the NHS become environmentally sustainable, and to help meet its legal obligation to become net zero by 2045.
The hub will be led by the University of Exeter.
Hub director Ed Wilson, Professor of Health Economics and Health Policy at the University of Exeter said: “We’ll be looking at a patient’s journey through the NHS and social care, finding where the carbon hotspots are and seeing what we can do to make them carbon neutral.
“This isn’t just about reducing travel and unnecessary waste, but about helping the NHS’ suppliers – the companies who make our drugs, medical devices and everyday items like swabs, sheets and hospital gowns – to redesign their processes to reduce carbon emissions.”
Scottish biotech company Lentitek secures £1m to advance next-gen cancer treatments
Edinburgh-based biotech company Lentitek Ltd has secured £700,000 in private funding from Equity Gap, a leading Scottish angel investment syndicate, bringing its total investment to £1 million in the last six months.
This follows a £300,000 Innovate UK grant awarded recently, earlier, accelerating the development and commercialisation of its groundbreaking viral vector technology for next-generation cancer treatments.
Lentitek specialises in developing manufacturing technologies for lentiviral vectors, which are essential in the delivery of CAR-T cell and gene therapies – breakthrough treatments for cancer and genetic disorders.
Fraser Lusty, Managing Director of Equity Gap, said: “Lentitek is tackling one of the biggest challenges in modern medicine—making advanced cancer therapies more widely accessible.
“With a cancer diagnosis occurring in the UK every 90 seconds and nearly 3.5 million people living with the disease, investing in breakthrough technologies like Lentitek’s is essential to improving patient outcomes.”
Prorizon secures £400k funding to drive Digital-Twin technology in mental and physical performance management
Prorizon, a Manchester-based health and sports tech startup, has successfully raised £400k in a pre-seed funding round.
The investment from GC Angels was raised alongside an Innovate UK Investor partnership award with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and other angel investors.
It will enable Prorizon to enhance its platform, integrating advanced AI technologies to provide personalised and preventative interventions for individuals managing both physical and psychological stress.
This will support Prorizon’s mission of optimising long-term health and performance while tackling the root causes of stress, particularly among young people working in highly competitive environments.
Joly Fengyang Zou, co-founder and CEO of Prorizon, said: “Our goal is to provide a holistic approach to mental and physical health, allowing users to take control of their well-being in a way that is tailored to their unique needs.
“The funding from GC Angels will allow us to integrate AI technology into our platform and improve our solution, helping even more people manage their health and performance across industries like sports and education.”
Presymptom Health secures £200k to roll out rapid infection diagnosis across NHS
UK MedTech Presymptom Health has secured £200,000 in additional grant funding to speed-up its AI-driven infection detection technology, cutting test times to just 40-60 minutes.
Presymptom Health will also use the funding to make its rapid tests compatible with a variety of widely available PCR machines, streamlining diagnostics is secondary care.
Presymptom’s InfectiClear technology can detect infection up to three days earlier than current methods by analysing the body’s RNA-based response—rather than searching for the pathogen itself.
Trained and validated on 15 years’ worth of patient data, the AI-driven test ensures that doctors can correctly detect the presence, or lack, of infection, at the earliest possible opportunity.
This approach provides an early, highly sensitive signal for infection or sepsis and avoids the delays and inaccuracies often seen with traditional tests, which can lead to unnecessary or incorrect treatments.
Dr Iain Miller, CEO of Presymptom Health, said: “Identifying infections quickly and accurately is critical – not just for saving lives, but for ensuring antibiotics are only used when absolutely necessary.
“By ensuring our technology is broadly compatible across multiple platforms, we’re making it easier for hospitals to adopt faster, more accurate infection detection.”
