Microscopic Scaffolds Company Receives Funding Boost

The Electrospinning Company has secured £1.5M in Series A funding which it intends to use to grow sales of existing product and develop new biomaterials.

Electrospinning is a process in which an electrical charge is used to produce fibres that are a hundred times thinner than a human hair. These fibres are electrospun into microscopic 3D scaffolds, much smaller than the eye can see.  These microscopic materials can be used to develop nanofibre membranes that can be surgically placed in the body to promote natural repair by the host’s own cells, improving healing and reducing internal scarring and which can be tailored to degrade, or resorb, once healing has taken place.

Tendon surgery is just one example where the company’s scaffold technology is being used in combination with traditional orthopaedic medical devices to improve the success rate of the medical procedure, by helping guide a patient’s own cells into the wound healing site.

Ann Kramer, Chief Executive Officer of the Electrospinning Company, commented: “We are excited about the prospects this new investment will bring for what we believe are highly flexible and extremely beneficial medical products.”

A spin-out of STFC, The Electrospinning Company was the first company to join the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre at the Harwell Campus (ESA BIC Harwell) when it first opened in 2010.  Set up to help start-ups with brilliant ideas using space technology to address the really significant challenges facing our society, it was at the ESA BIC Harwell that the company refined its cutting edge technology that combined equipment originally designed for use in space programmes with the electrospinning process.

The £1.5 million funding was led by London-based venture capital firm Downing Ventures, alongside VC firm MidVen, Newable Private Investing and STFC.