Biotech firm Alchemab Therapeutics raises £25m backed by British Business Bank
This article covers Alchemab Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech startup, extending its series A funding round with a £25m investment from British Business Bank to expand its proprietary antibody dataset and accelerate clinical development of antibody therapeutics. The funding is intended to grow Alchemab's Resiliome dataset to more than one billion antibody sequences to improve identification of rare therapeutically relevant antibodies and move additional candidates into clinical trials.
Alchemab Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech startup, has extended its series A funding round with a £25 million investment from British Business Bank — the Bank’s largest investment in a life sciences company to date — to expand its proprietary antibody dataset and accelerate clinical development of antibody therapeutics. The injection is an add-on to Alchemab’s existing Series A and brings the round total to £109 million.
Why it matters
The cash bolsters a UK company that mines naturally occurring, disease-protective antibodies for drug discovery. By funding the expansion of Alchemab’s Resiliome dataset from roughly 500 million to more than one billion antibody sequences, the deal aims to improve the company’s ability to spot rare, therapeutically relevant antibodies and move more candidates into human trials.
The backing from British Business Bank is notable because it is public or quasi-public capital deployed directly into a biotech company at scale, signalling a willingness to provide long-term patient capital for complex drug development programmes in the UK.
Inside the product
Alchemab’s Resiliome platform combines deep sequencing of antibodies found in individuals with unusual disease resilience with AI-derived algorithms and laboratory validation. The company says this approach identifies first-in-class antibody therapeutics that would be difficult to find using conventional discovery methods.
Its most advanced asset, ATLX-1282, a first-in-class antibody for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), was licensed to Eli Lilly — an example of commercial validation from a major pharma partner that supports the platform’s translational potential. The new funding is earmarked to increase the size and diversity of Alchemab’s antibody database and to push additional candidates into clinical development.
Who are the investors?
The new £25 million tranche comes from British Business Bank as a significant direct equity investment into Alchemab. The cheque increases the company’s Series A to a total of £109 million; the earlier parts of the round were raised from private investors, including SV Health Investors.
In the announcement, Kate Bingham, Managing Partner at SV Health Investors, said:
The UK life sciences sector has the expertise, creativity and commercial potential to build globally significant biotech companies, and Alchemab is determined to be one of them. This investment by the British Business Bank demonstrates the importance of providing capital to allow innovative biotechs to scale here, and we are proud to be building the company's future in the UK.
In the announcement, Charlotte Lawrence, Managing Director, Direct Equity at British Business Bank, said:
Alchemab sits at the cutting edge of UK scientific capability, integrating deep sequencing and lab-based validation to harness the body's natural defences against disease. This landmark £25m investment demonstrates our commitment to providing the long-term capital necessary for the UK's most innovative biotech firms to advance complex pipelines in the UK.
In the announcement, Carmine Circelli, Investor, Life Sciences at British Business Bank, said:
Alchemab is yet another example of the UK's strength in leveraging technology in life sciences. By combining one of the world's largest proprietary antibody datasets with advanced AI, the company has developed a powerful platform with the potential to unlock new treatments. Our investment will help convert promising results into high value medical discoveries.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Jane Osbourn, Co-founder & CEO at Alchemab Therapeutics, said:
We are delighted that British Business Bank has recognised the importance of enabling Alchemab to grow and thrive here in the UK. This investment provides further validation of the sustainable, long-term potential of our drug discovery platform and will enable us to further accelerate our pipeline of first-in-class antibody therapeutics for conditions with significant unmet need.
Osbourn’s comments underline the company’s aim to remain UK-based while scaling a data-led discovery engine and moving multiple programmes through clinical development.
The bigger picture
The deal highlights a few broader trends in the UK and European biotech ecosystem: increasing use of AI and large biological datasets to drive discovery, growing willingness by public funds to provide patient capital, and continued appetite from big pharma for outward licensing of novel assets. For investors and startups, the Alchemab round signals that large, dataset-driven therapeutic platforms can attract both commercial partners and institutional public backing.
The investment also feeds into a wider conversation about the capital structures UK biotech firms need to compete internationally — sustained, long-horizon funding is crucial to translate early scientific promise into approved medicines. The Alchemab transaction will be watched as an example of how public and private capital can combine to support UK biotech ambition.
They've invested in Alchemab Therapeutics
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