Mercia Technologies : Further investment into Oxford Genetics

Mercia Technologies PLC

('Mercia', 'the Company' or 'the Group')

Further investment into Oxford Genetics

Mercia(AIM: MERC), the national investment group focused on the creation, funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions, is pleased to announce that it has completed a £500,000 investment into Oxford Genetics, a synthetic biology company with significant expertise in DNA design. This investment follows the £1.0million of additional capital which was provided by Mercia in October 2016 in order to expand the company's management team, board, patent portfolio and commercialisation strategy.

Oxford Genetics joined Mercia's 'Emerging Stars' portfolio of direct investments in December 2015 having first received investment from the Group's managed funds in 2013, as one of the founding investors. The company has now received a total of £5.8million in grants and investment. Mercia currently has a direct equity stake of 47.9%. This latest investment will be used to expand Oxford Genetics' reach into the US market and further drive sales growth alongside its recent access to CRISPR technology, whilst continuing to support its promising Research and Development at its state-of-the art facilities on the Oxford Science Park.

The company continues to make significant progress including 100% year on year growth in turnover and the successful award of £1.9million of non-dilutive grants in March 2017. This has been driven by impressive development of the patent portfolio, which now consists of one granted patent SnapFast™ and a further five submitted applications, with a plan to file another four in 2017. Furthermore, the board has been expanded with the appointment of Dr David Hames as Chairman, Dr Matt Baker as Non-executive Director and Dr Paul Brookes as Commercial Director.

Oxford Genetics operates in the high growth sector of synthetic biology and protein design alongside the bioproduction of complex biologics. The Synthetic Biology Market Report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market is expected to reach $38.7 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 44.2% during the period 2014 - 2020.

Dr Ryan Cawood, CEO of Oxford Genetics said: 'Mercia's continued support has been instrumental in helping us to achieve the significant progress to date. Our turnover has doubled in the last year and with this additional capital, we will be able to further expand the team, giving us the ability to build the most innovative technologies in the DNA and protein design market.'

Dr Mark Payton, CEO of Mercia Technologies PLC said:'Over the last 12 months, Oxford Genetics has clearly demonstrated its ability to create market leading technologies and has been bolstered by an industry leading research and development team. Life Sciences and Biosciences is a key sector for Mercia which we believe will deliver significant shareholder value over the medium term.'

For further information, please contact:

Mercia Technologies PLC Mark Payton, Chief Executive Officer Martin Glanfield, Chief Financial Officer www.merciatech.co.uk	[phone]
Cenkos Securities plc Ivonne Cantu / Mark Connelly (NOMAD)	[phone]
Buchanan Bobby Morse, Victoria Hayns, Stephanie Watson www.buchanan.uk.com	[phone]

About Oxford Genetics

Founded in 2011 and now a leading synthetic biology company, Oxford Genetics mission is the creation of transformative systems and services to aid in the discovery and development of biologics, cell and gene therapies. A unifying theme across the portfolio is expertise in designing DNA using Oxford Genetics patented technologies, to optimise the expression of proteins, improving viral delivery systems and cell line engineering.

About Mercia Technologies PLC

Mercia is a national investment group focused on the creation, funding and scaling of innovative businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions. Mercia benefits from 18 university partnerships and six offices across the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland providing it with access to high quality, regional deal flow. Mercia Technologies PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic 'MERC'.

Mercia's 'Complete Capital Solution' initially nurtures businesses via its third party funds (now with more than £336.5million under management following recent mandate wins) and then over time Mercia can provide further funding to its 'Emerging Stars' by deploying direct investment follow-on capital from its own balance sheet.

Since its IPO in December 2014, the Company has invested over £30.0million directly across its portfolio of 'Emerging Stars'.