Braveheart Investment Group PLC (LON:BRH), the technology company investor, has increased its stake in imaging specialist Phasefocus to 42.7%.
Through the deal, AIM-listed Braveheart will purchase an additional 22,145 shares in Phasefocus from Synergy Investments for £203,000 payable in shares at a strike price of 29p.
Currently, Braveheart has a 25% stake in Phasefocus, which has developed a series of patented computational imaging techniques in applications such as live cells, engineering metrology and electron microscopy.
Meanwhile, Braveheart said another of its investee companies, Paraytec is preparing patent applications after the conclusion of the UK government-funded Nexus Project.
Commercial exploitation is expected to come from the development of a new analytical instrument used in two main areas: The analysis of high concentration monoclonal antibody (mAb) formulations and characterising critical quality attributes of Virus Like Particles (VLP) for use in Gene Therapy, which has possible uses in the development of therapeutics and vaccines for coronavirus (COVID-19).
Braveheart added that one of the key features of the Nexus Project has been the high level of meaningful interaction with end-users including GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Fujifilm Diosynth, The University of Central Lancashire and The Centre for Process Innovation.
All end users have expressed a wish to be involved in the continuation of the development work, said Braveheart.
Paraytec is also part of a European consortium with two SMEs (Biomotif AB in Sweden and Spectrometry Vision BV in Holland) as well as the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the VU University Medical Center in Holland to develop a test for Alzheimer's Disease by detecting certain biomarkers connected to neurodegeneration.