CatSci Ltd, a scientifically-led, commercially-minded and award-winning innovation partner for medicines development, has secured £4.5m of investment from the alternative lender BOOST&Co to expedite the development and launch of life-changing therapeutics.

Shaw & Co, the specialist corporate finance advisory firm, advised CatSci on the deal which will be used to fund strategic expansion of its workforce, laboratories, equipment and offerings.

Established in 2011, CatSci now employs nearly 100 people and achieved a turnover of more than £5.8m in 2021. The company develops economically and environmentally sustainable drug manufacturing processes that enable its global pharmaceutical customers to create affordable small molecule therapeutics to address critical public health challenges, including antimicrobial resistance, cancer and mental health.

The £4.5m funding will be a continuation of CatSci’s £3m investment – started in 2021 – whilst helping to refinance the company’s existing debt. New equipment and a major extension to its 13,000 sq ft laboratories in Cardiff will support CatSci’s expansion of its capabilities in chemical and analytical development, material science, and product formulation, alongside GMP Analytical testing. This will enable CatSci to continue offering “more and better” to its customers so that they can deliver best-in-class medicines to patients worldwide.

Dr Ross Burn, Chief Executive Officer, CatSci, said: “It was our pleasure to work with Shaw & Co to source significant growth capital from BOOST&Co to complete our 2022 investment plan. Expanding our chemistry facilities in Cardiff and establishing our GMP Analytical facility in London are pivotal steps of our journey to become a fully integrated CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control) innovation partner that accelerates medicines development.”

Chris Mears, Principal at BOOST&Co said: “CatSci is a world class and agile innovation partner in an increasingly vital sector. This investment will help fuel the growth plans in providing new state-of-the art laboratories and highly skilled job opportunities as well as continuing to enhance South Wales’ reputation as a hot-bed of innovation and expertise.

“We quickly gained confidence in the capability of this management team and their ability to continue their scale-up journey. The focus at BOOST&Co to buy into future plans rather than pure historics and to provide a higher debt amount than a main-stream lender was key to supporting these expansion plans effectively.”

Colin Burns, Director, Shaw & Co, said: “We ran a competitive marketing process across a wide variety of traditional and alternative lenders to find CatSci the best possible deal which would provide them with a strong foundation for further growth. The deal demonstrates that there are certainly a number of viable financing options out there for any SME looking to fund their company’s future development and expansion.”

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Media Contacts:

FWD Consulting

Gug.kyriacou@fwdconsulting.co.uk  020 7623 2368

Roddy.watt@fwdconsulting.co.uk  020 7623 2368

Shaw & Co

Paul.Mills@shawcorporatefinance.com  0330 127 0105

Karl.Blockwell@shawcorporatefinance.com  0330 127 0106

About Shaw & Co

Shaw & Co is a leading corporate finance advisory firm that helps business leaders and SME owners across the UK to buy, sell, or fund the growth of a business. The Bristol-based firm, which was founded by Jim Shaw in 2011, has one of the largest advisory teams in the South West, specialising in a range of services from developing acquisition and exit strategies, business valuations and funding readiness advice, to trade sales, mergers, management buy-outs, and securing finance for growth projects, acquisitions and MBOs.

Shaw & Co has led a number of notable deals including the sale of Pukka Herbs to Unilever, the purchase of VoucherCloud from Vodafone, and the sale of Nanopharm to AptarGroup.

Website: www.shawcorporatefinance.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/shawcorpfin/

Twitter: @ShawCorpFin

About CatSci

CatSci Ltd is an award-winning innovation partner for medicines development, dedicated to developing economically and environmentally sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. We proudly serve customers across the globe, meeting their needs from candidate selection to product launch and beyond. Our tailored services include route scouting and selection, initial scale-up and risk management for early development. For later development, we provide process design, assessment and optimisation, scale-up for clinical and commercial manufacture, tech transfer and post-approval improvements. We possess a range of critical enabling technologies including catalysis, material science and analytical development.

Agile, commercially-minded and scientifically-led, CatSci leverages its highly qualified technical team and state-of-the-art facilities to empower our customers to create affordable, best-in-class small molecule therapeutics in a safer, greener and more cost-effective way. Together, we can meet the evolving healthcare needs of the world.

CatSci works efficiently with your preferred partners, while continually strengthening our own industry-leading partnerships across the pharmaceutical supply chain, to address your dynamic drug substance development needs. A true extension of your team, we are a dependable, trusted partner for innovation that takes the time to understand your project objectives and provide you with perfect-for-purpose solutions.

Recognition includes wins at the prestigious CPhI Pharma Awards (Excellence in Pharma: Contract Services and Outsourcing), at the highly esteemed Cardiff Business Awards (International Business of the Year) and the Wales STEM 2020 Awards (STEM scale-up of the year). We were also recently shortlisted for the 2021 CPhI Excellence in Pharma: CEO of the Year Award and the 2021 Bionow Export Award.

Website: https://catsci.com/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/catsci-ltd/

Twitter: @CatSciLtd