Jellagen

Jellagen produces research grade functional non-mammalian collagen products sourced from jellyfish. Jellagen pitched to Newable’s investing programme, in November 2015, and raised £1,533,000 equity investment through our community of investors to expand its processing capacity. The money was used for the launch of a new first-of-its-kind manufacturing facility for the extraction of high purity collagen from jellyfish. This makes them the first commercial manufacturer of jellyfish collagen for research, medical, biotech and pharmaceutical markets. We recently interviewed Andrew Mearns Spragg, to find out how receiving this investment and the support from Newable helped his business.

What inspired you?

Ever since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated by anything to do with the ocean. I ended up in academia, in marine chemistry, that’s where I made the connection between jellyfish and collagen. Most of the collagen used in the biotech industry comes from cows, pigs and rats – that’s both problematic and unsustainable. Jellyfish, on the other hand, are increasing across the oceans and they’re a brilliant source of high grade collagen, suitable for all human medical applications. I set up Jellagen to turn this insight into a business.

How did the support you received help you?

We launched in 2014. By September 2015, we’d reached scale-up stage and were looking for some more serious investment. That’s when the Government’s Life Science hub connected us to Newable. We met with the team and explained what we do. They liked our story and invited us to pitch to their angel group. Right after our presentation, one of the investors came over and said, “I want to be your lead angel”. It was amazing really.

Our £1.8m scale-up injection allowed us to move out of university premises, expand our team, develop our technology and secure vital patents. Now, looking forward, our revenue is growing, our product range is expanding and we’re starting to see exit opportunities on the horizon.

Newable believes in building business confidence and encouraging business growth in Britain, if you are interested visit our investing programme.

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