Allied Minds marks 2015 as year of investment

Allied Minds laid out 2015 as a year of investment, rather than cashflow, as it updated the market on Tuesday of its trading in the 12 months to 31 December 2015.

The company had net cash and investments - including cash in the form of fixed income securities - of $194.8m (£135.37m) at the end of the year, down from $261.5m at the end of 2014.

Revenues fell during the year to $3.2m, from $7.7m, with the board blaming revenue shortfall at RF Biocidics, with following initial regulatory approval now required certification for each individual installation, delaying revenue.

During 2015, the FTSE 250 firm invested $102.8m into new and existing portfolio companies, including leading fundraisings of $63.6m - with $42.2m coming from third-party investment - to accelerate the development of two of the group's existing companies.

They were fluorine-based drug discovery company SciFluor Sciences, which raised $30m to accelerate its treatment for retinal diseases and its treatment for neurological diseases. Early intervention technology firm Precision Biopsy raised $33.6m to accelerate the commercialisation of its ClariCore Biopsy System and develop its Focal Therapy programme.

A total of $39.2m was invested by Allied Minds into other portfolio companies, including four new firms - Bridgesat, ABLS I (Yale), HawkEye 360 and ABLS II (Harvard). On 29 January, subsidiary Federated Wireless raised $22m to enable it to complete its Spectrum Access System and Environmental Sensor Capability certification process.

Allied Minds CEO Chris Silva said the company made positive progress across the group in 2015, with subsidiaries meeting - or exceeding - commercial milestones in nearly all instances.

"We have embarked on exciting collaborations with industry leaders such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Intel, AMD and Google; raised material third-party funding to accelerate the development of two of our key subsidiaries, and seen the number of commercialisation phase subsidiaries double to six", he added.

During the year, Allied Minds said it engaged with over 90 new research institutions, bringing the total US universities and federal laboratories in its partner network to 160 - up from 68 at the end of 2014.

"Our US academic and federal partner network is continuing to flourish, and has been highly productive over the year", said Silva.

"We reviewed more than 5,000 new technologies and engaged with over 90 new research institutions, reflecting the growing recognition of the strengths of Allied Minds as a commercialisation partner", he continued.

Allied Minds' headcount also increased to 359 during the period, up from 234, almost entirely concentrated in the operating subsidiaries.

The company was due to report its full-year results on 25 April.