Arakis receives #16 million in second round

Investee Company – Arakis (UK)

Investee Company Business – Speciality pharmaceuticals

Type of Financing – Second round

Equity Providers – Nomura International PLC, 3i Group PLC, Merlin Biosciences Fund LP, MB Venture Capital Fund I NV

Equity Leader (Individual) – Dr Denise Pollard-Knight (Nomura International PLC)

Debt Providers – N/A

Debt Type – N/A

Debt Leader (Individual) – N/A

Equity Amount – £16 million

Total Deal Value – £16 million

Other Advisors – Ashursts (to Nomura International PLC)

Comments – Essex-based Arakis, a developer of therapeutic products, has raised £16 million in second round funding.

The deal was led by Nomura International, a leading life sciences investor. They were joined in this round by 3i and investors from the first round of financing in August 2000 Merlin Biosciences Fund and MB Venture Capital Fund I. Arakis plans to use the capital to fund four on-going clinical development programmes, further develop its preclinical programmes and extend its in-house drug enhancement technologies.

With headquarters in London and offices in Prague and Madrid, Nomura International is part of Nomura Group, a leading financial services group based in Japan with worldwide operations. The group provides a wide range of financial services including brokerage, trading, underwriting, M&A financial advisory services, merchant banking and development and management of investment trusts and investment advisory services.

Founded in March 2000, Arakis was formed to create, protect, develop and commercialise innovative therapeutic products – termed Performance Enhanced Medicines (PEMs). The company aims to generate a wave of new therapies that are suited to individual patient needs. Arakis currently has eight programmes in development and over three hundred other PEM product concepts at various stages of evaluation.

Dr Ken Cunningham, CEO of Arakis said: “The current wave of new biology has offered Arakis a unique opportunity to create proprietary medicines based upon known drugs. We are delighted that such high quality life science investors have committed funds towards building Arakis into a fully-fledged specialty company.”