Arecor- Investment Information for OT2
Date of First Investment	Jul 2007

Arecor - Investment Information for OT3
Date of First Investment	Jul 2007

Arecor - Investment Information for OT4
Date of First Investment	Jul 2007

Arecor Limited became Arecor Therapeutics Plc and floated in June 2021. It is a leader in the development of innovative formulation technology that enables differentiated biopharmaceutical products. It has developed a proprietary, patent backed formulation technology platform that has been proven to stabilize a broad range of molecules as aqueous compositions. Many proteins, peptides and vaccines are too unstable in liquid form and/or at high concentrations to develop stable ready-to-use drugs and Arecor has overcome these challenges to significantly enhance the delivery of therapeutic medicines to patients.

Since inception in 2007, it has built a successful revenue generating business employing this technology to enable and differentiate biopharmaceuticals for a large cross section of the major pharmaceutical companies on a fee for service plus licensing model.

Arecor has taken the strategic decision to develop a portfolio of differentiated peptides through to clinical proof of concept, with an initial focus on diabetes as a therapeutic area. Arecor have announced three key products: an ultra-rapid acting insulin, a highly concentrated insulin and a stable aqueous glucagon.

Arecor has successfully defended two key European patents against active opposition which is an indicator of both the novelty of their work and the importance to potential competitors. Innovate UK backed the development of the super-fast-acting prandial insulin with a £500k grant.

Arecor is based at the Cambridge Science Park in the UK and has a highly talented scientific and management team.  

Diamond Hard Surfaces - Investment Information for OT4
Date of First Investment	Jan 2005

OT4 was the first investor in Diamond Hard Surfaces (DHS) when the company was founded in 2004. The objective was to develop a process for creating a hard diamond like coating that was superior to other similar coatings.

The DHS coating is extremely hard and also has exceptionally low friction against itself. The technology is a low temperature process which can be applied to a wide range of substrate materials and geometries and is applied in sectors such as Aerospace, Oil and Gas and Electronics.

Over the last few years the company has been developing a coating which has the unusual properties of being an almost perfect electrical insulator while having three times the thermal conductivity of copper. This coating has now been branded ThermaSp3c ™. This coating is used as a heat sink – removing heat from chips which are working particularly hard (and therefore getting hot) particularly in defense applications. When combined with some new, exciting substrate materials, ThermaSp3c is producing ground-breaking performance in initial trials.

The company continues to supply a growing customer base with its materials in a wide range of sectors, engaging in research and development projects with both new and existing customers.

ImmunoBiology- Investment Information for OT2
Date of First Investment	Dec 2000

ImmunoBiology- Investment Information for OT3
Date of First Investment	May 2003

ImmunoBiology- Investment Information for OT4
Date of First Investment	Oct 2005

ImmBio was founded in 2003 by Camilo Colaco to develop vaccines that engage dendritic cells. Dr. Colaco identified the role that Heat Shock Proteins play in activating the immune system. The company has programmes developing vaccines against Tuberculosis, Meningitis and Pneumonia. The TB and Meningitis vaccines have been partnered for development in China and India.

The pneumonia product PnuBioVax has now been trialled on humans in a Phase 1 trial which primarily and successfully assessed safety of the approach. The study showed the vaccine creates antibodies against a wide range of strains. The company has signed its first license deal for PnuBioVax with CNBG – China National Biotec Group – part of the state owned Sinopharm group. The license is for the development of a vaccine for infants in the Chinese market.

Pneumonia produces greater infant mortality than TB, HIV and malaria combined. There are approximately 100 serotypes (variants) of Streptococcus pneumoniae in circulation. The emergence of new serotypes presents an ongoing challenge. Existing marketed vaccines are relatively expensive to produce and do not cover all existing or emerging strains. Also, they do not produce good resistance in children, one of the primary patient groups. In contrast, PnuBioVax offers the potential of improved protective breadth and low production costs.

PnuBioVax not only protects against a larger number of strains, it also provides protection against the toxins produced by the bacteria.

Insense - Investment Information for OT2
Date of First Investment	Jun 2001

Insense - Investment Information for OT3
Date of First Investment	May 2003

Insense - Investment Information for OT4
Date of First Investment	April 2005

Insense Ltd is a spin-out from Unilever and developed a range of active dressings, which can be applied to the skin to treat a variety of conditions.

In order to sterilise the Insense dressings after manufacture, Professor Davis had to develop a method of stabilising the proteins so that they would withstand ionising radiation. Having done this, it transpired that many pharma companies were interested in using this technology for their own protein-based products. This led to the spin-out of Arecor. All the shareholders in Insense received the same % of shares in Arecor which then raised capital to fund its own expansion. Arecor is making excellent progress.

Insense is now developing a potential treatment for fungal nail and through Microarray it is developing a technology to diagnose the state of a wound, in order to apply the most suitable dressing.

MirriAd- Investment Information for OT4
Date of First Investment	May 2015

MirriAd was spun out from another Oxford Technology 4 VCT investee, Imagineer Systems, in 2006. In May 2015 MirriAd's assets were purchased by Broadwall Acquisitions Ltd, subsequently renamed MirriAd Advertising Ltd. OT4 recieved shares in MirriAd Advertising as part of the acquisition. Mirriad Advertising listed on AIM in December 2017 and OT4 received shares in Mirriad Advertising Plc.

MirriAd is able to deliver Embedded Advertising into video streams, ranging from user generated content, such as on YouTube and MySpace, to studio and broadcast quality productions, such as Casino Royale or Pop Idol. This capability allows real time ‘In-Video Advertising’, where branded products for instance, Coke cans, advertising hoardings, or even cars can be placed into video streams, appearing to the viewer as if they were there on the original film set. This means, for example, television game shows could be regionalised by inserting different branded products into multiple variations of a single show for example, Pepsi into one version of Pop Idol, for broadcast in the US, and 7 Up into another, for transmission in Europe. Popular clips on YouTube could be monetised by inserting branded objects or images into the background with the particular brand automatically selected according to the demographic of the individual downloader.

Mirriad Advertising Plc is listed in the FTSE AIM All-Share Index in the Media sector. (Code MIRI)

Click here for MirriAd shareprice information

Novacta - Investment Information for OT4
Date of First Investment	Apr 2005

Novacta Biosystems Ltd was founded in 2003 to discover and develop novel pharmaceuticals with a particular focus on infectious disease. OT4 first invested in Novacta in 2005 although since then the company has been restructured.  ‘Novacta’ was intially comprised of four separate companies: a parent company (Novacta Holdings Ltd), and three separate intellectual property holding companies. The Company is now consolidated into Novacta Holdings Plc and OT4 holds shares in this non UK entity.

Novacta uses proprietary microbial technologies and enzymes (biotransformation and pathway engineering) to make subtle modifications to complex drugs to optimise their properties such as selectivity, potency and toxicity.   Novacta’s lead programmes are centred around a class of small peptide molecules called lantibiotics, a drug class that until now has been underexploited due to the lack of adequate research tools.

Select Technology- Investment Information for OT1
Date of First Investment	Sep 1999

Select Technology- Investment Information for OT2
Date of First Investment	Nov 2001

Select Technology- Investment Information for OT3
Date of First Investment	Nov 2004

Select Technology- Investment Information for OT4
Date of First Investment	Aug 2006

Select Technology (STL Management Ltd) distributes high quality document management software via its global channel partners while adding significant further value through its development team by providing integrations or bespoke solutions. Select Technology grew significantly between 2010 and 2018 by focusing on print management software, primarily PaperCut. Realising that this type of software has become increasingly commoditised, the company changed its focus to document capture and sharing, acquiring distribution rights to additional software solutions and introducing them to the market in an innovative way.

Select Technology has also been a leading light in the formation of IDEA – the International Document Evolution Alliance. The founder members of the Alliance are all software specialists and able to provide a very high level of support for the products which they distribute. Each member is located in a separate geographical region and, between them, the members cover over 100 countries. This allows members to compete with major companies in attracting international business which, individually, they would not be able to do.

In addition, if an Alliance member encounters a new product for the document management market with significant potential, the member can bring it to the attention of IDEA. Given the combined purchasing power and expertise of the group, the Alliance can look to negotiate international distribution rights by offering the vendor an easy route to global distribution. The products which Select Technology distributes include Drivve Image, Everyone Print, Foldr, KPAX Management, Papercut and Square 9 content management.

Superhard Materials- Investment Information for OT3
Date of First Investment	Feb 2012

Superhard Materials- Investment Information for OT4
Date of First Investment	Feb 2012

In early 2012, Lucian Falticeanu, who was employed by Metal Nanopowders discovered a method of treating certain powders to produce a material which is super hard. (Hardness > 45 Gpa – believed to be harder than anything except diamond itself). The powder may be pressed into a shape which is then sintered at very high temperature to produce the end product. This may be electrically machined and also polished if necessary. It is believed that this may have several applications. A new company, Superhard Materials Ltd has been established in which Lucian has a 40% shareholding, to take this forward. The rights to this material, now called Superduride, have been licensed to Precision Ceramics Ltd in Birmingham. Lucian has also joined Precision Ceramics as Technical Director. Precision Ceramics will pay all the costs of manufacture and marketing of Superduride, and Superhard Materials will receive a share of the gross margin on sales.