The latest funding highlights, including irritable bowel syndrome, workforce shortages, hyperspectral imaging, cancer immunotherapies, and treatments for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
EnteroBiotix raises £19 million for clinical trials
Glasgow-based biopharmaceutical firm EnteroBiotix has raised £19 million ($25 million) to propel its lead candidate, EBX-102-02, into a pivotal Phase 2b clinical trial. It has not disclosed the round of funding.
The financing was co-led by Thairm Bio and the Scottish National Investment Bank, with additional support from a mix of new and existing investors. This capital injection marks a significant milestone for the company as it transitions into late-stage development for its full-spectrum microbiome therapy, which aims to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C).
The upcoming RISE trial (Restoring Intestinal Symbiosis for Efficacy in IBS) is set to be one of the largest interventional clinical trials of its kind. Enrolling approximately 300 patients across the UK, the study will evaluate the efficacy of EBX-102-02, an orally delivered therapeutic designed to restore microbial ecosystem diversity in the gut. Dosing is expected to begin in the second quarter of the year, following a successful Phase 2a study that demonstrated clear efficacy signals over a placebo in patients suffering from both constipation and diarrhoea-predominant IBS.
EnteroBiotix’s approach uses proprietary manufacturing technologies to ensure that its medicinal product is stable, safe, and highly diverse. Unlike narrow-spectrum probiotics, this full-spectrum model is designed to provide a comprehensive restoration of the intestinal environment. By targeting the microbiome as a whole, the company believes it can deliver the first disease-modifying therapy for a condition that affects more than ten million people in Europe and the US, where treatment options have historically focused on symptom management rather than underlying causes.
“Following the positive outcome of our Phase 2a TrIuMPH trial… We are now commencing the largest ever full-spectrum microbiome therapeutic trial in IBS,” said EnteroBiotix chief executive James McIlroy. “The Phase 2b RISE trial is designed to confirm the earlier signal observed and position EBX-102-02 as a potential first disease-modifying therapy for IBS-C, a highly debilitating condition,” he added.
Asterix Health raises £2.1 million pre-seed funding
London-based healthtech startup Asterix Health has raised £2.1 million in pre-seed funding to address the chronic workforce shortages currently straining the NHS.
The round was led by Triple Point, with additional participation from D2, Entrepreneurs First, Basis Capital and several prominent angel investors.
Founded in 2024 by Julian Titz and Max Thilo – both of whom were motivated by their own personal experiences navigating serious health conditions – the company uses a proprietary platform to integrate remote, GMC-registered GPs into primary care workflows.
The capital injection is earmarked for the rapid onboarding of new NHS practices and the expansion of a global network of doctors, including NHS-trained clinicians currently living abroad. Asterix is the first company authorised under new NHS regulations to employ UK-registered GPs based overseas, providing the health service with 24/7 coverage and access to talent that had previously left the frontline. By handling time-consuming clinical administration and telephone consultations, the platform currently supports practices serving a combined 250,000 patients.
The startup’s remote workforce model aims to provide a systemic solution to a crisis where the ratio of patients to qualified GPs has risen by 15% over the last decade. Early data suggests the intervention saves individual GP practices more than one clinical session per day, with the potential to save the NHS upwards of £250 million annually through increased productivity. To bolster its clinical governance, Asterix recently appointed Mike Bewick, former deputy medical director of NHS England, to its leadership team.
Julian Titz, co-founder and chief executive of Asterix Health, explained that the platform’s primary goal is capacity expansion rather than simple redistribution.
“For the first time in decades, we are actually growing the pie – increasing the number of highly qualified GPs available to deliver primary care rather than simply moving existing GPs around the country,” he said. “Our early partners are already seeing significant productivity gains and reallocating the saved time into new proactive care services for patients as a result.”
Hypervision Surgical raises £17 million Series A
London-based Hypervision Surgical has closed an oversubscribed £17 million Series A round to accelerate the commercial deployment of its real-time hyperspectral imaging platform.
The financing was led by Heal Capital, with participation from Angelini Ventures, IP Group and Daycrest, alongside follow-on support from existing backers like ZEISS Ventures and Redalpine. Notably, the round includes strategic investment from Macmillan Cancer Support and the SINC Fund, the innovation arm of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES).
The company’s proprietary platform aims to move surgical imaging beyond subjective visual assessment. By combining advanced spectral sensing – co-developed with nanoelectronics hub imec – with cloud-enabled AI, the system captures data from beneath the tissue surface that is invisible to the human eye. This provides surgeons with real-time, pixel-level insights into tissue physiology and oxygenation without the need for contrast dyes, essentially creating a software-defined intelligence layer compatible with robotic, laparoscopic, and open surgery platforms.
Hypervision’s first commercial system is built on the NVIDIA IGX edge computing platform and has already received both UK certification and US FDA clearance. A key application for the technology is assessing tissue viability during colorectal cancer surgeries to prevent anastomotic leakage – a severe complication occurring in up to 15% of cases. The FDA’s recognition of the platform included the issuance of a new product code for AI-based real-time video augmentation.
“This Series A marks a major milestone in our mission to power surgical intelligence through hyperspectral vision,” said chief executive and co-founder Michael Ebner. “By combining advanced spectral sensing with cloud-enabled AI analytics, we are building a new intelligence layer in surgery – giving surgeons real-time insights into tissue that were previously impossible to access,” he added.
Cytospire Therapeutics raises £61 million Series A
London-based biotech Cytospire Therapeutics has closed an oversubscribed £61 million ($83 million) round of Series A funding.
The round was led by 4BIO Capital and featured a syndicate that included Sound Bioventures, British Business Bank, Criteria Bio Ventures and existing backers Abingworth and LifeArc Ventures. The raise also secured investment from Servier Ventures, the newly formed corporate venture arm of the French pharmaceutical giant Servier.
The funding is primarily earmarked for the clinical advancement of Cytospire’s lead candidate, CYT X300. The pan-gamma delta T cell engager targets EGFR-positive solid tumours, such as colorectal and non-small cell lung cancers. Unlike conventional T cell engagers that typically focus on CD3 T cells, Cytospire’s multispecific antibodies are engineered to activate the entire spectrum of gamma delta T cells to create a broader, more robust anti-tumour response.
By targeting all gamma delta subtypes, the company aims to overcome the patient heterogeneity that often causes other immunotherapies to fail. This approach allows the treatment to recruit both blood-resident and tissue-resident immune cells directly to the site of the tumour. The new capital will support the completion of IND-enabling preclinical studies and GMP manufacturing, paving the way for first-in-human clinical trials to establish proof-of-concept in both solid and liquid tumours.
“Immune cell engagers are an important type of cancer immunotherapy, but we know that there are significant limitations from both an efficacy and safety perspective with conventional CD3 T cell engagers,” said Natalie Mount, chief executive of Cytospire Therapeutics. “The significant fundraise that we are announcing today reflects the quality of our team and our science, and the huge potential of our pan-gamma delta T cell engagers,” she added.
CellCentric Raises $220 million Series D
Transatlantic biotech CellCentric has announced a $220 million (£161.4 million) Series D financing round to advance its lead drug candidate, inobrodib, into registration-enabling trials. The oversubscribed round was led by Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, with a high-profile syndicate including Fidelity, Sofinnova Partners and HBM Healthcare, alongside existing backers like Pfizer and the American Cancer Society.
The firm said that this capital injection solidifies CellCentric’s position as a frontrunner in developing oral treatments for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM).
The proceeds are specifically earmarked for its DOMMINO clinical program. This includes the ongoing Phase 2 DOMMINO-1 study and the initiation of a global Phase 3 trial, DOMMINO-2, slated for the second half of 2026. Inobrodib acts as a p300/CBP inhibitor, a novel modality that targets the underlying drivers of cancer cell growth. By offering an oral capsule that can be administered at home, the therapy aims to provide a more accessible and less intensive alternative to existing injectable treatments that require hospital monitoring.
Clinical data presented at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting last year showed that inobrodib, when combined with standard therapies (InoPd), doubled response rates in heavily pretreated patients who had already failed a median of five prior lines of therapy. Beyond its lead triplet combination, CellCentric is exploring the drug’s efficacy in maintenance settings and in combination with bispecific therapies, aiming to address the significant unmet need for patients who have exhausted anti-BCMA options.
“We are thrilled to have the support of top-tier investors who believe in inobrodib’s potential to address a critical need in multiple myeloma, notably after bispecific T cell engager or anti-BCMA therapies,” said CellCentric chief executive Will West. “Fuelled by this funding, we are well positioned to complete registration enabling studies for the all-oral triplet and advance our progress toward delivering a transformative treatment,” he added.
