Abcam Secures £200 Million Financing to Expand Online Platform for Research-Grade Biological Reagents

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media reports that Abcam completed a £200 million financing round on May 15 to support its market expansion in China and the United States and to fund new acquisition plans. HSBC UK served as the agent and joint lead arranger for this financing. HSBC also provided Abcam with a revolving credit facility to support the development of new technologies and market expansion.

Gavin Wood, Chief Financial Officer of Abcam, stated, “Current new research findings and breakthroughs will bring more accurate diagnostic technologies and better treatment outcomes, making the life sciences industry more vibrant. Based on this, Abcam will have more opportunities to expand its market. We hope to achieve expansion through investment and acquisition, and we are pleased to have the support of HSBC.”

Jason Smithers, head of HSBC, stated: “Abcam’s strength and customer-centric strategy will unlock access to a market worth approximately $8 billion.”

It is reported that Abcam completed a $1.8 million venture capital financing round in January 2011, was listed on the London Stock Exchange in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2008, and raised $77 million through its initial public offering (IPO) in April 2012.

Abcam, founded by Dr. Jonathan Milner in 1998, is a producer and distributor of research-grade antibodies and related proteins, dedicated to manufacturing and providing high-quality biological reagents to assist life scientists in basic research, disease diagnosis research, and drug development. Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, the company has branches in Eugene (USA), Cambridge (USA), Tokyo (Japan), and Hong Kong (China), serving customers in more than 140 countries worldwide. With continuous growth, Abcam has become an industry leader, with annual revenue exceeding £60 million and continuing to rise. The key factors behind its success are the speed at which it brings products to market and its operational efficiency. In March this year, Abcam won the inaugural China-UK Award at the Bloomberg Businessweek Awards ceremony.

Antibodies are indispensable tools for life scientists analyzing the components of living cells at the molecular level. Abcam has revolutionized the way customers purchase antibodies by establishing an online antibody store. Its online marketplace features tens of thousands of products and provides hundreds of thousands of pages of related data. With the expansion of its protein detection business and global market presence, the company now offers primary and secondary antibodies, immunoassays and cell-based assay kits, proteins/peptides, agonists/antagonists/activators/inhibitors, and lysates. These products cover a wide range of research areas, including oncology, cardiovascular research, cell biology, chromatin and nuclear signaling, developmental biology, immunology, metabolism, microbiology, neurobiology, signal transduction, and stem cell research, with its product portfolio continuously expanding.

Abcam provides high-quality protein research tools and expert technical support for cutting-edge research fields such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, chromatin, immunology, neuroscience, and stem cells—enabling scientists to quickly locate specific products and accelerate the pace of disease research.

HSBC was established in 1865 and is one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world, with approximately 8,000 offices across 87 countries and territories in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East, and North Africa.

HSBC is listed on the stock exchanges in London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, and Bermuda, with more than 220,000 shareholders from 119 countries and regions. Leveraging its specialized international network and e-commerce operations, HSBC provides customers with a diverse range of financial services, including personal wealth management, commercial banking, investment banking, and private banking.

(Compiled by Tang Lulu)