About
Arche Innovations Ltd suspended operations on 31 December 2019 when the Founder returned to the venture capital industry on a full-time basis. The Company would like to thank all its clients that have supported the business since 2012.
Arche Innovations Ltd was established in 2012 to offer management consultancy services to organisations operating in the medical, healthcare and life sciences sectors.
The Company has particular expertise in early-stage ventures as well as the project management of major economic development initiatives targeted at the life sciences industry.
The main areas of focus for the Company are market analysis, strategy development, business planning, investment readiness, raising venture finance, solving operational management issues and developing exit scenarios.
The Founder and Managing Director, Dr Mark Bowman, is an expert in innovation and early-stage companies, with over twenty years of direct experience in identifying, launching, financing, leading and incubating technology start-ups. He is professionally qualified, holding both a CFA UK Investment Management Certificate and PRINCE 2 Practitioner status.
Assignments
Life Sciences Hub Wales
Dr Bowman’s initial involvement in this project took the form of a 9 month part-time secondment into the Welsh Government’s Life Sciences Sector Team. His role was to assist the Chairman of the Life Sciences Sector Panel, Professor Sir Christopher Evans OBE, and the Deputy Director Ifan Evans in creating a business case for ministerial approval. This involved carrying out extensive due diligence with members of the Welsh life sciences industry, including both operating companies, professional services firms, and academic institutions. The data gathered from this exercise was fed in to the Hub business case in order to clearly demonstrate a demand for the facility and buy-in for the concept from the business and academic communities.
Arche Innovations Ltd was subsequently commissioned to build a pipeline of prospective Hub members who would be willing to pay membership fees for space within the facility. Dr Bowman used his extensive contact network within the Welsh and broader UK life sciences community to build this pipeline, resulting in a validated list of over 70 prospective members. Dr Bowman was also closely involved in establishing a pricing structure for Hub membership and for use of high-class meeting rooms within the new facility.
GE Healthcare Innovation Village
In the first instance, Arche Innovations Ltd was commissioned by GE Healthcare to prepare an application for Welsh Government funding to conduct Open Innovation activities at the Company’s Forest Farm site in Cardiff. This included capital funding for the creation of a Demonstrator Laboratory where academics and start-up companies could work closely with GE Healthcare scientists.
The concept of the Demonstrator Laboratory was broadened to include the refurbishment of larger scale facilities on site, thereby creating expansion space for life science companies. This broader programme was re-branded as the GE Healthcare Innovation Village.
Arche Innovations Ltd was subsequently commissioned to provide project management support over a period of 9 months during the development and of this initiative. Additional Welsh Government capital support was secured with the assistance of Dr Bowman and Phase 1 of the initiative was successfully launched in April 2015. This facility was full within 2 months of opening and steps are now being taken to launch Phase 2 to accommodate further applicants.
InvestorG8 Investment Readiness Pilot
Arche Innovations Ltd was commissioned by Swansea University to prepare an application for Welsh Government support through the Academics for Business (A4B) programme. This successful application set out an ambitious pilot programme that would take academic projects that had successfully applied for translational research funding and progress them to the point where professional investors would be willing to table a Head of Terms offer of investment.
In total, nearly £450,000 of public funding was secured and Arche Innovations Ltd successfully tendered to act as the Programme Manager for this initiative. Over 10 months, 9 projects were funded through InvestorG8, with a panel of professional venture capital fund managers selecting the most commercially viable activities. Each project had a Commercial Lead appointed who had direct experience of working with start-up companies, relevant industrial experience at a senior level, and a successful track record of raising venture finance. These individuals were sourced from across the UK, with a particular focus on established life sciences hotspots such as the South East Golden Triangle and the Scottish Biobelt.
Seven spin-out companies or joint ventures were formed as a result of the InvestorG8 pilot, with the initiative on track to deliver at least a 10 fold return on the public funding invested.
Swansea University Innovation Fund
Arche Innovations Ltd was asked to assist in the preparation of a business case for an internal venture investment fund to help launch spin-out companies. Dr Bowman’s experience of seed stage investment was used to help structure this initiative, with a focus on using the University’s cash investment to leverage venture funding from experienced third-party investors. As a result, a co-investment strategy was adopted, whereby the Innovation Fund will invest on identical terms to the incoming investors. This has the advantage of retaining influence for the University as the portfolio of co-invested spin-out company develops.
The Innovation Fund has developed close relationships with existing Welsh seed investors such as Finance Wales and IP Group plc. In addition, co-investments with regional High Net Worth Individuals are being actively pursued.
In its first year of operation the Innovation Fund has completed five co-investments, and as a direct consequence of this activity leveraged over ten times as much funding from third party sources.
Swansea Healthcare Innovation Partnership Programme
Arche Innovations Ltd was commissioned to programme manage a novel healthcare innovation initiative called SHIPP. This formed part of a larger open innovation drive by Swansea University. SHIPP provided proof of concept funding to projects involving Swansea University academics and clinicians based in the Welsh NHS.
A pipeline of 14 potential projects was identified and 5 projects funded. SHIPP built upon the succes of InvestorG8 and worked with a panel of venture capital investors and intellectual property experts to assess which applications to fund. SHIPP's objectives were to develop new products and processes that will, over time, impact significantly on healthcare provision within the Welsh NHS.
AgorIP
AgorIP is a £13.5 million project that brings together academics, clinicians and businesses to pioneer research into cutting-edge technologies and drive commercial success. The scheme, which began in January 2016 and will run until December 2020, works with the NHS and industrial partners to turn innovative research into new products, processes and services. The funding for the AgorIP project has been provided by the Welsh Government and the European Regional Development Fund, together with additional funding from Swansea University.
Arche Innovations won a tender to act as Pipeline Manager for AgorIP. This involves Dr Bowman chairing a Commercial Panel of independent venture capital investors who make recommendations in respect of which projects to fund. Dr Bowman works closely with a new team of technology transfer professionals working at Swansea University's Bay Campus.
IP Group plc
Arche Innovations Ltd was commissioned to carry out an extensive audit of early-stage commercialisation opportunities emerging from the life sciences faculty at Swansea University.
This work involved meeting with academic staff and working closely with Swansea's technology transfer team. This work led to a detailed report on the prospective investment opportunities that was shared with the University.
PulmonIR Ltd
PulmonIR is a spin-out from Swansea University and is developing in-vitro diagnostic products targeting respiratory diseases. The company's initial focus is on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Dr Bowman was asked to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer following the company's formation in February 2016. Since then, he has led the business through a number of investment rounds involving the Development Bank of Wales, IP Group plc and the Swansea University Innovation Fund. He has also helped the company to secure grant funding from the Welsh Government's Health Technology and Telehealth Fund and from Innovate UK's Investment Accelerator Pilot.
Testimonials
Mark’s organisation of the InvestorG8 programme was exemplary, and he clearly managed to develop an excellent working relationship with the academics and commercial leads involved with the various projects. Overall, InvestorG8 was a highly successful project thanks to Mark, leading to further programmes of this kind and the generation of a fund specifically to assist high growth University opportunities at this stage.
Dr Colin Lucas, South West Wales Manager, Angels Invest Wales
Mark has worked in early stage investment and technology transfer. Mark’s management of the InvestorG8 programme provided the ideal link between investors, commercial leads and leading academics. It has been a pleasure to work with Mark on the programme and I look forward to working with him more in the future.
Dr Richard Thompson, Senior Investment Executive, Development Bank of Wales
I have known Mark for a number of years but recently worked more closely on the GE Innovation Village project in Cardiff. As the Innovation Village director at GE Healthcare, I quickly realised that in order to successfully deliver the project I needed to consult with expertise in the field and no one came more highly recommended that Mark. His knowledge, sympathetic understanding, extensive network and overall vision were critical to delivering the well-received launch of the Innovation Village. I have no reservations to recommend or personally call upon Mark to aid on similar projects in the future.
Dr Justin John, Innovation Village Director, GE Healthcare
