Ip Share Discussion Threads

[p1nkfish] 06/12/2022 10:32

Can anyone remember what, if any, goals IPO have/had on a 3 or 5 yr time frame and where I can find them?

[bamboo2] 06/12/2022 07:58

house, I have only just had time to look at the recent RNS in detail.

It's a sizeable lift [£36m] in valuation, which means it must be in the top 5, or even
the top 3 portfolio Companies by holding value.

The RNS also says it's a first close of a funding round.

This must be Istesso, as all the others have had prior funding rounds afaik.

As ever, if anyone knows different, let us know!

[bamboo2] 05/12/2022 08:42

IP Group PLC

05 December 2022


FOR RELEASE ON 05 December 2022

IP Group plc - Portfolio company Istesso announces FDA Fast Track and Orphan Drug designation for MBS2320

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), which develops world-changing science and technology businesses across life sciences, technology and cleantech , notes that portfolio company Istesso Ltd ("Istesso" or "the Company"), the immunometabolism drug discovery and development company, has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for Istesso's investigational metabolic reprogramming agent, MBS2320, for the treatment of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

The fast track process is designed to facilitate the development and expedite the review of drugs to treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need. The purpose is to get important new drugs to the patient earlier. A fast track drug must show some advantages over available therapy, such as the potential for superior effectiveness or an improved effect on serious outcomes.

MBS2320 is a first-in-class investigational drug which is currently in clinical development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) where it has demonstrated a unique profile, reducing inflammation and supporting the remodelling of damaged bone. In models of IPF, MBS2320 has shown a similarly unique profile, reducing symptoms of IPF while also supporting remodelling of fibrotic tissue. A clinical study in patients with IPF will start in 2023.

The FDA has also designated MBS2320 an orphan drug for the treatment of IPF. This designation makes Istesso eligible for development incentives, including tax credits, FDA assistance with clinical trial costs, and seven years of market exclusivity in the U.S., should the treatment gain market approval.

Dr Lisa Patel, CEO and co-founder of Istesso, comments: "This fast track designation reflects the pressing need for new treatments to help patients with IPF. At Istesso we are committed to creating genuine improvements in patients' health and quality of life. This fast-track designation is an important milestone that will help us advance MBS2320 to patients with this debilitating and life-threatening condition more rapidly".

IP Group has an undiluted holding of 56% in Istesso.

[houseofpain1] 02/12/2022 14:34

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), which develops world-changing science and technology businesses across life sciences, technology and cleantech, notes that following the completion of a first close of a funding round by a portfolio company in its top twenty most valuable holdings, it has recorded a net unrealised fair value gain of approximately £36m or approximately 4p per share. The Group has committed £4.2m to the funding round. Further information will be provided in due course.

What do we reckon - Featurespace?

Can't believe that the shares won't even price in a tiny bit of that 4p fair value gain! Hey-ho, hopefully good things will still come to those who wait...

[bamboo2] 28/11/2022 21:34

First Light Fusion targets 60 MW pilot plant to accelerate tritium production

60 MW pilot fusion power plant, c. $570 million capex, set to produce 2 kg of excess tritium per year

Pilot plant designed to prove the integrated engineering for electricity generation and manufacture of tritium which will support faster roll-out of commercial fusion power

First Light partnering with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) to design a tritium extraction system

First Light also working with IDOM on reactor chamber design


28th November, Oxford, UK: First Light Fusion, the Oxford-based fusion pioneer, is today announcing a new technical partnership aimed at rapidly advancing towards a new pilot plant based on its unique projectile fusion technology, while addressing the need for tritium harvesting.

The proposed 60 MW pilot plant has been designed to:

minimise the barriers to a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) commercial power plant, while reducing overall costs and engineering risk, and;
accelerate the development of a secure supply of tritium, by enabling a revenue-generating pilot plant with less stringent engineering requirements.
Addressing the need for tritium

Central to the design of the pilot plant is the recognition of the need to address the requirement for new tritium production.

The need for tritium and deuterium for the fusion reaction is universal across all fusion technologies. Deuterium is both cheap and abundant, extracted from seawater. However, tritium exists naturally only in trace amounts in the upper atmosphere, the product of cosmic ray bombardment. Though nuclear reactors also produce tiny amounts, it is not generally “harvestedR21;.

Tritium is far more valuable than electricity, priced at c. $30,000 per gram currently, making it the fourth most valuable[1] substance found on planet earth on a weight basis (after californium, plainite and diamond). The proposed 60 MW pilot plant which is expected to cost c. $570 million[2] to develop, will produce c. 2 KGs of excess tritium a year.

A number of fusion pioneers, including First Light’s projectile approach, include tritium breeding into their models. However, the challenge of tritium production has forced some fusion concepts to consider much more challenging fuels that avoid the use of tritium, significantly increasing the physics risk.

First Light’s “liquid lithium wall” approach, inside the reactor chamber where the fusion reaction will take place, gives it an inherent advantage in tritium production. The fusion reaction is surrounded by liquid lithium, allowing tritium self-sufficiency to be easily reached, and making it possible to design for excess tritium production.

First Light believes that by accelerating the development of a smaller pilot plant that also provides a steady tritium supply, this will stimulate the faster roll out of fusion power, and provide a shorter time frame between pilot plant and commercial fusion.

First Light has partnered with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) for the preliminary design of a system capable of extracting tritium from the First Light reactor, as well as the development of tritium processing and storage options.

In addition to working with CNL, FLF is also working with Spanish engineering giant IDOM on the design of its fusion reactor chamber. This chamber will include the unique liquid lithium wall, which will absorb the neutrons caused by the reaction caused by the impact of the projectile into the target, or fuel. Click here to see our simulation.

Dr. Nick Hawker, Co-founder and CEO of First Light Fusion, said:

“Our pilot plant is designed to prove the integrated engineering for electricity generation and manufacture of tritium. We recognise the need to address the shortage of tritium. By accelerating our plan for a pilot plant, we are directly addressing this key barrier to the more widespread take up of fusion power, while also building an immediate and sizeable revenue stream into our business model. We are developing at pace now and look forward to sharing details of our gain experiment, Machine 4, very soon.”

Dr. Jeff Griffin, CNL’s Vice-President Science & Technology, said:

“As a national laboratory, CNL is uniquely positioned to work in collaboration with partners in the private sector to advance innovative concepts towards real-world use. First Light’s unique projectile approach to fusion energy creates a compelling route to achieving tritium production. We are proud to be working with First Light to develop a system that can address this challenge and to help accelerate the journey towards commercial fusion power.”

[p1nkfish] 28/11/2022 16:15

I'm away until Wednesday, across water. A little stretched until Christmas. Not enough hours per day.

[bamboo2] 28/11/2022 08:58

p1nk, Re the NHS/ONT meeting.
I can dig out a link for you if you want to register to attend.
Alternatively, it's quite likely it will be recorded.

I am unsure if I can make it, as have to work in the morning, and in face to face meeting in the afternoon.

[p1nkfish] 27/11/2022 22:44

Good luck to them.

Have to admire Hawkers fore-sight from day 1 and common sense, down to the simulation approach and wanting a plant able to use existmg engineering capabilities and materials in a way that would spur supplier competition.

Excess Tritium might also generate some income.

Let's hope they succeed. The money is small beer in the great scheme of things given the problem it could solve.

[bamboo2] 27/11/2022 21:58

British nuclear fusion start-up plans $570m reactor

A nuclear start-up attempting to crack the “holy grail” of nuclear fusion is planning a new $570m [£500m] pilot plant which will also make crucial fuel.

Oxford-based First Light Fusion is examining sites across Britain for a facility that will use fusion to produce both electricity and tritium, an isotope of hydrogen needed to fuel fusion reactions.

A facility would be used to supply First Light's commercial fusion reactor, which is still under development.

Tritium is extremely scarce and currently costs around $30,000 a gram, with much of the world’s stock already earmarked for other reactors.

First Light Fusion says producing it on site would help commercialise fusion technology, which has been in development for decades.

Nick Hawker, First Light Fusion’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “One of the major engineering challenges of fusion is being able to produce enough tritium yourself.

“With our design approach, that's quite an easy thing to do. So with this pilot plant design we will maximise that strength.

“It will be designed to over-produce tritium. That will unblock the scalability of the technology, allowing us to scale out many more power plants much more quickly.

“So this pilot plant will provide the fuel for the first generation, the first fleet of our proper commercial plants.”

First Light hopes to get the 60-megawatt pilot plant up and running in the early to mid-2030s. Mr Hawker does not anticipate it will need to sell equity in First Light to fund the plant.

The company is among several worldwide trying to develop nuclear fusion power, which holds the promise of abundant clean energy by replicating the process that powers the sun.... continued

Https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/27/british-nuclear-fusion-start-up-plans-570m-reactor/

[click browser reload to stop paywall!]

[p1nkfish] 23/11/2022 13:07

There is an event for Genomics in the NHS with Ox Nano scheduled for 29/11.
It might be the reason for the IPO event postponement the following day?
ONT and IPO being intertwined that is.

There were mentions a while back if launch of Ox Nano Diagnostics, when?

[p1nkfish] 23/11/2022 11:31

Yes, if they are that cunning.

[bamboo2] 23/11/2022 11:13

You can imagine how they might think by depressing the ONT sp, they might manage to bring the IPGroup NAV down, and make this a reality.

[bamboo2] 23/11/2022 11:10

I already said elsewhere that if all the IPGroup Woodford era floats [now aka the flatliners] had been sold short as a hedge, we'd have done very well indeed.

[bamboo2] 23/11/2022 11:08

p1nk, yes, ditch the junk, flog the rest.

[p1nkfish] 23/11/2022 09:50

Nothing is impossible bb2, probably strip it down. Can't see the likes of Acacia being long term holders and developers.

IPO most like to just ebb and flow with wider risk on/off sentiment without a catalyst. Quite rudderless. Some of that is down to management. Not all but a fair amount imho. Hope I'm wrong.

There's a "commercial gene" missing. Look over the history of successful floats and IPO's vs what was much better terms to sell into a little later on.

[bamboo2] 23/11/2022 09:35

p1nk, any chance there could be a t/o or some other similar corporate activity going on in the background here?

Just looking at how Acacia operate, they could with a small party, possibly take this on?

[bamboo2] 22/11/2022 22:32

Diffblue Expands AI for Code Platform – Raises $8m in New Funding
Oxford ⋅ Nov 21, 2022

UK pioneer in using artificial intelligence (AI) to write software extends platform to increase speed, confidence and insight during development; AlbionVC leads funding round to target $40 billion market opportunity

OXFORD, United Kingdom, Nov. 21, 2022 – Diffblue, creators of the world’s first fully autonomous AI-for-code software, today announced unique new code-writing capabilities for its Cover product and new venture funding.

AlbionVC led an $8 million upround with participation from venture investors IP Group, Parkwalk, Hostplus and Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund. To date, Diffblue has raised more than $40 million in venture funding.

“Citi Markets uses its deep software expertise to move faster and be more competitive. We find value in Diffblue’s auto-generation of test cases, which helps drive test consistency and coverage of our software. This frees up developers to focus on delivering higher quality software, faster – and improves our developers’ experience,” said Jonathan Lofthouse, Managing Director & Global Head of Markets Technology, Citi. “We’re pleased to see the new Diffblue product capabilities and funding.”

The new capabilities in Diffblue Cover give enterprises running Java a unique way to leverage the business value of unit testing by allowing them to:

Autonomously write and maintain unit test suites for entire applications;
Automatically refactor Java code to improve testability;
Slash the time and cost to run tests in CI (Continuous Integration);
Help development managers understand test coverage and code risk across their organization.
“The world faces a huge economic problem: there is far more software to be written than there are people to do it,” said Mathew Lodge, CEO of Diffblue. “Diffblue̵7;s software helps leading financial services, healthcare and technology companies around the world accelerate their application modernization projects, reduce failures in production, and empowers developers to focus on what they do best – write great code.”

By using AI to automate, expand and accelerate unit testing - the key enabler of fast delivery of high-quality code – Diffblue Cover gives enterprises new ways to improve software development for competitive market advantage. Cover enables enterprises to transform developer productivity, modernize applications and adopt cloud-native architecture, and safely deliver projects like cloud migration and the embrace of microservices.

Interest in AI-powered tools is growing as developers and IT leaders recognize the value they can deliver. With software testing currently estimated to be a $40 billion market[1] that is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6 percent through 2030, investors and global enterprises increasingly see opportunity in new AI-powered technologies such as Diffblue to transform this crucial aspect of software development.

“AI-augmented coding is transforming software development” said Robert Whitby-Smith, Partner, AlbionVC. “We see Diffblue as the leader in the space because it has the only fully automated offering, unique and differentiated technology, and a rapidly growing blue-chip customer base. It enjoys a first-mover advantage in the critical enterprise software development arena targeting millions of developers and we were impressed by its recent traction, in particular in the US. They are very well positioned to create a new category leader and take a significant portion of a multi-billion dollar market opportunity.”

Reflecting accelerating adoption of a new generation of software development tools, a recent Gartner® report[2] noted, “Software engineering leaders are looking for new practices and approaches that their teams can adopt to mitigate risks to the business. Test automation, increasingly powered and enhanced by artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) technologies, becomes an indispensable building block for building digital immunity.”

Diffblue Cover includes four key new features built on an enhanced version of Cover Core, the AI engine powering the product’s foundational analysis and test writing capabilities:

Diffblue Cover Reports pinpoints unique, actionable insights that allow users to precisely target available resources and improve the quality of their code;
Diffblue Cover Optimize slashes the time needed to deliver Java code in CI pipelines, and significantly reduces related costs;
Diffblue Cover Refactor suggests and applies changes that improve existing code by making it more testable, automatically increasing test coverage;
Diffblue Cover Replay improves software quality by using live production behavior and existing functional tests to create new unit tests.
To learn more about how the latest version of Diffblue Cover enables fast, efficient, comprehensive unit testing to accelerate application modernization, transform software development and improve developer productivity, visit diffblue.com.

About Diffblue

Diffblue is the leading pioneer of software creation through the power of AI. Founded by researchers from the University of Oxford, Diffblue Cover uses AI for Code to solve the problem of effective unit testing. Capable of writing unit tests 250x faster than a human developer, Cover helps software teams improve code quality, expand test coverage and increase productivity, so they can ship software faster, more frequently, with fewer defects.

[p1nkfish] 22/11/2022 10:57

Wonder why they postponed the life-sciences presentation. Could it be something due in the portfolio, ont, or what? Hope it's not a negative. Fact they have specified zero about the cause of the postponement makes me wonder if it's a sensitive reason?

[bamboo2] 15/11/2022 18:14

WSJ Report on Hysata [Green Hydrogen]

Https://www.wsj.com/articles/startups-bring-down-cost-green-hydrogen-11668117024?reflink=share_mobilewebshare

[bamboo2] 08/11/2022 19:33

Nuclear fusion works, just not yet well enough. Learn how software simulations running on modern supercomputers and data science are lighting up possible paths forward...

Https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Computer-simulation-at-work-for-the-future-of-nuclear-fusion

[edwardt] 07/11/2022 17:35

could save the world that one and hopefully make us rich along the way

[bamboo2] 06/11/2022 14:11

"We love steam," Hawker said. "It's low risk, it's easy. I want a very boring power plant design, and I want one new thing only, which is the core process. Everything else I want to be as standard as possible."

Https://www.newsweek.com/first-light-fusion-nuclear-gun-uk-1754934

[bamboo2] 01/11/2022 15:53

Diurnal sale nets £13,722,578.38

Book value at 30/6/2022 was £5.3m meaning an uplift of approx £8.43m

The uplift in value should be seen in the context of the earlier write down of approx £22m in the 31/12/2021 valuation.

Some of this cash realisation should be earmarked for buybacks.

[bamboo2] 31/10/2022 18:43

FOR RELEASE ON 31 October 2022

IP Group plc - PDMR share purchase

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group" or "the Company"), which develops world-changing science and technology businesses across life sciences, technology and cleantech, has been notified that on 28 October 2022, Christopher Glasson, Finance Director and a PDMR, purchased a total of 74,615 ordinary shares of two pence each ("Shares") as outlined in the below table.

Christopher Glasson 74,615 GBP0.59 137,749

£81271.91 +tax and dealing charges