At a glance
Maven partnered with BioAscent to support the next phase of its evolution, helping the business expand from a specialist compound management provider into a fully integrated drug discovery services platform. Through investment in scientific talent, service capability and infrastructure, BioAscent delivered four consecutive years of high double-digit growth, invested more than £3 million in R&D equipment and established itself as one of the UK's fastest-growing drug discovery CROs.
A differentiated platform with significant growth potential
BioAscent is a leading provider of integrated drug discovery services, supporting biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies throughout the discovery phase of drug development. Combining expertise in biosciences, medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry and compound management, the business provides a comprehensive range of services designed to help clients accelerate the discovery of new medicines.
The company operates from a state-of-the-art research facility in Newhouse, Lanarkshire, originally developed by Merck and widely regarded as one of the most advanced drug discovery facilities in the UK.
Prior to Maven's investment, BioAscent had already established a strong reputation through its involvement in the European Lead Factory, one of the most significant public-private drug discovery collaborations undertaken in Europe. The initiative successfully created a compound library of more than 500,000 molecules and generated almost 200 qualified drug discovery leads for pharmaceutical and biotechnology organisations.
As CEO Paul Smith explains, "That project was great for the business, but was coming to an end. I joined the company during that transition period – there was a year left of the project funding but what were we going to do next?"
The answer lay in building on the infrastructure, expertise and reputation already established within the business to create a broader and more scalable commercial platform. BioAscent possessed many of the key ingredients required for growth: world-class facilities, deep scientific expertise and a highly experienced management team. The opportunity was to transform those strengths into a broader integrated drug discovery offering capable of supporting customers throughout the discovery process.
Investing in capability to accelerate growth
Maven's investment enabled BioAscent to expand beyond its traditional compound management offering by adding complementary biology and chemistry services, allowing the business to provide a broader range of integrated drug discovery solutions.
Alongside the funding, Maven introduced Ian McDonald, an experienced Chief Financial Officer with a strong track record in the CRO sector.
"Ian is a key member of the executive team and was a great introduction," says Paul.
The investment also enabled BioAscent to significantly expand its scientific team. What had previously been a small specialist organisation evolved into a multidisciplinary drug discovery business capable of supporting increasingly sophisticated customer programmes.
As Chief Commercial Officer Mike Piper explains, "We had invested in the people, but didn't yet have the contracts. We had to get those people busy as quickly as possible and the funding from Maven provided us with the working capital to allow us to do that."
The strategy was built around investing ahead of growth and creating the capability required to compete with larger, more established contract research organisations.
"We operate in a very competitive marketplace and an awful lot of the work goes to providers that organisations have worked with before," says Mike. "The challenge for us was to find opportunities that were typically in a competitive tender process, persuade people that we could add value and should be on the list and then prepare the best scientific proposal. It wasn't easy, but we achieved it probably quicker than we expected."
At its core, BioAscent remains a people business enabled by technology. The company's growth has been underpinned by its ability to attract highly skilled scientists while investing in the infrastructure and equipment required to support world-class drug discovery programmes.
Pictured: Paul Smith, CEO of BioAscent
Supporting the next phase of growth
Today, BioAscent employs almost 100 people and continues to build on the momentum generated since Maven's investment. The business remains focused on expanding its scientific capabilities, increasing laboratory capacity and broadening its service offering to support customers across a wider range of therapeutic and discovery disciplines.
"We are in a more rapid growth phase and at the moment it's about building that critical mass," says Mike. "Maven is very supportive of this strategy, providing additional investment and bringing added value to the table."
Beyond capital, Maven has continued to support management through its sector expertise and extensive network of industry contacts.
"Maven's sector knowledge and contact network has also been invaluable," says Paul. "We'll ask David if he knows anybody with particular expertise, and Maven has been really helpful in sourcing the right contact, most recently when they introduced an advisor that has enabled us to benchmark BioAscent on various key metrics."
Looking ahead, the business is focused on further expanding its scientific capabilities, recruiting world-class talent and increasing laboratory capacity to support future growth.
"The next part of our growth strategy is having the space for expansion," says Paul. "We're already in advanced discussions to achieve a significant increase in lab and office space while retaining a single location, which makes the drug discovery process so much more efficient."
As we recognised at the time of investment, BioAscent possessed exceptional scientific expertise, world-class facilities and an ambitious management team with a clear vision for growth," says David. "Our role has been to help the team accelerate that journey by providing capital, strategic support and access to specialist expertise. The progress achieved to date reflects the strength of that partnership and the significant opportunity that remains ahead of the business."
