52North, the University of Cambridge spin-out behind the Neutrocheck finger-prick blood test, has raised £3.2M in a round co-led by Macmillan Ventures and Hargreave Hale AIM VCT.

The company is tackling neutropenic sepsis, a life-threatening complication for people on chemotherapy. Patients who feel unwell often have no way to judge their own risk, so many head to emergency departments. The condition drives tens of thousands of hospital visits a year, and research suggests around two in five of them turn out to be false alarms.

Neutrocheck is designed to enable remote triage. A patient takes a finger-prick blood sample, and the result helps them and their care team decide how urgent the situation is without an immediate trip to hospital. It is the first application of Aster, 52North's proprietary biomarker detection platform, which is intended to bring diagnostic insight out of the hospital and into patients' hands.

The round takes 52North's total equity funding to more than £7.5M. It is also the first deal Macmillan Ventures has led, having launched recently as the venture arm of Macmillan Cancer Support. Macmillan had backed the company earlier through its Innovation Impact portfolio. Co-founder and CEO Umaima Ahmad called the round "another powerful vote of confidence in our platform". She founded the company in 2018 with Saif Ahmad, Mireia Crispin-Ortuzar and Nicole Weckman. Felix Litzkow, head of Macmillan Ventures, joins the board as a director.

Hargreave Hale AIM VCT comes in as a new investor with a £1.0M commitment, the largest cheque from a new backer in 52North's history. Existing investors Cedars-Sinai Intellectual Property Company, Cancer Research Horizons, the University of Cambridge and OKG Capital also took part, and the round includes a grant from Innovate UK's Investor Partnerships programme. The funding will go towards clinical validation of Neutrocheck, regulatory milestones and preparations for a UK launch.

Sources