BGF first backed Optima in 2022 to the tune of £2.3 million. BGF, which has re-invested as a minority shareholder, said today’s deal generated a four-fold return on its original investment.
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In 2021 Mr Crawley partnered with Chris Foley, a leading academic in advanced mathematics that underpins cutting-edge machine learning and AI applications. The following year Optima launched bioXcelerate AI, a health data science division aimed at accelerating drug discovery through large-scale data analytics.
“Since its launch, Optima has gone from strength to strength, expanding our capabilities, growing our team and deepening our impact across a range of critical sectors,” Mr Crawley said.
“The launch of our health data science division, bioXcelerate AI, has been a major milestone, reflecting the scale of opportunity we see as organisations look to make better use of data and advanced analytics. The backing and continued support from BGF has been instrumental in helping us reach this stage of our growth.
“This investment from GCP marks the start of an exciting new chapter. It gives us the momentum to build on our success, accelerate our plans and continue developing the capabilities that will define the next stage of Optima’s journey.”
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The company has offices in Edinburgh, London and Bristol. Revenues in 2024 reportedly increased by 40%, while headcount has almost doubled in the past two years to 80, plus an associate pool of approximately 20 people.
“The business has already demonstrated impressive momentum and scale, supported by strong leadership, deep technical skill sets and robust industry expertise,” said Richard Shaw, partner at GCP.
“We are delighted to partner with the team at this exciting stage of their journey and are looking forward to working together to enhance go-to-market capability, strengthen organisational infrastructure and scale delivery capacity in a rapidly growing and strategically important sector.”
Mr Foley, the company’s chief executive, said Optima is now “firmly” focused on the next stage of growth.
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“GCP’s investment is a strong endorsement of our mission to help our clients turn their data, analytics and AI strategies into measurable outcomes at speed,” he said. “This funding allows us to accelerate our growing track record of innovation, invest further in our people, and strengthen the infrastructure required to support our clients at greater scale.
“With this partnership, we can move faster to help organisations understand, adapt and enhance human- and data-led decision-making supported by AI, bridging academic foundations with industry-focused and value-based impact.”
Richard Pugh of BGF added: “This is a fantastic result for both BGF and the Optima team. Our backing has supported Alan’s ambitious vision and combined with Chris’ expertise and direction, the business is in an ideal position to gather pace and seize the huge opportunities arising in AI and data.
“It has been a pleasure working with Alan and Chris over the years and we look forward to continuing our backing as a minority shareholder, supporting the business as it embarks on this next phase of growth alongside GCP.”