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White City Innovation District: 2025 Investment Review

As an action-packed 2025 draws to a close, White City Innovation District reflects on another year of remarkable growth and resilience. Despite ongoing global economic headwinds, companies from the White City Innovation District community have continued to attract significant investment – boosting the district’s reputation as one of Europe’s most dynamic engines for advancing deep tech and life sciences innovation.

Major Highlights of 2025 

  • £72.5 million fundraised by 18 companies*
  • £6.5 million in grants won by 19 companies*
  • 15 firms named in MedCity’s ‘Life Sciences Companies To Watch’

*Scale Space and I-HUB only.

Top 3 grant awards (by £ amount)

  • Mitra Bio: £2.2 million (European Innovation Council)
  • Sixfold Bioscience: £1.1 million (Innovate UK)
  • MRC LMS: £1 million (MRC Business Engagement Fund)

Top 3 deals (by £ amount)

  • Pfizer Acquisition of Metsera: up to £7.5 billion 
  • Portal Biotech: £27.1 million funding round
  • Valink Therapeutics: £8.9 million raised
White City Innovation District 2025 investment infographic


White City Innovation District: growing recognition 

  • £1 million award to the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS, pictured above): Announced during London Life Sciences Week in November, this funding from the MRC Business Engagement Fund will support eight new collaborations between LMS, Imperial College London, and commercial partners ranging from local spin-outs to global pharmaceutical leaders.  
  • London Life Sciences Week spotlight: White City Innovation District featured prominently in November’s flagship event, co-organised by the BioIndustry Association (BIA), MedCity and London & Partners. The District was showcased as a leading destination for scaling biotech ventures, with more than £1.8 billion in life sciences investment attracted since 2017 and over 2,700 jobs created locally. 
  • Ahead of London Life Sciences Week, 15 White City Innovation District businesses were named in MedCity and London & Partner’s ‘Life Sciences Companies To Watch 2025’ report published in November. The companies recognised are: 30 Technology, Autolus Therapeutics, Avacta Therapeutics, Epsilogen, DNAe, MediSieve, Micrographia Bio, MiNA Therapeutics, Mitra Bio, Mytos, Orchard Therapeutics, P.Happi®, Portal Biotech, Quell Therapeutics, Vivan Therapeutics

  • Global partnerships and talent attraction: The White City Innovation District community continued to strengthen collaborations with international pharma, biotech and medtech firms, while Imperial College London’s expanding White City Campus is proving to be a major draw for world-class researchers and entrepreneurs.  

Key Trends  

  • Strengthening academia-industry partnerships: The LMS collaborations highlight White City Innovation District’s role as a catalyst for translational research, bridging cutting-edge science with commercial application.

  • Oncology and advanced therapeutics focus: Much of the year’s investment activity leaned toward oncology, immunology and precision medicine, reflecting global investor priorities.  

  • Ecosystem maturity: White City Innovation District’s blend of start-ups, scale-ups and established global players has created a robust environment for innovation – attracting both capital and talent.  

Spotlight on White City Place Growth

Exterior image of White City Place in White City Innovation District


During 2025, the White City Place community achieved remarkable growth, with leading brands, innovators and global partnerships driving record profits, strategic expansions and transformative collaborations across diverse industries. Here we take a look at some of its stand-out success stories.

Television Centre:

Exterior image of the iconic Television Centre campus in White City Innovation District


White City Place:

White City Innovation District: 2025 Funding & Investment Round-Up

Aerial photograph of White City Innovation District (copyright: Jason Hawkes/Imperial College London)

December 2025

  • Imperial spin-out ProtonDx secured US $1 million (£790,000) in seed funding from CARB-X to evaluate whether blood can be used as a suitable sample type for diagnosing pediatric lower-respiratory tract infections (LRTIs).

    In collaboration with Imperial, the molecular diagnostics innovator – now based at Hammersmith Hospital – will evaluate RNA biomarkers of the body’s immune response to infection and translate them to gene-based assays that can be used to deliver rapid clinical decision making in emergency and remote care settings for the treatment of pediatric LRTIs. Read more

November 2025

  • Global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced the successful completion of its up to £7.5 billion acquisition of Metsera, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company accelerating the next generation of medicines for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. 

    In 2023, Metsera acquired Zihipp, gaining access to its obesity drug candidates developed at Imperial under Professor Stephen Bloom. He and his team founded the Imperial spin-out Zihipp in 2019 to develop a portfolio of obesity treatment candidates based on the appetite-suppressing potential of the gut hormone GLP-1. Research and early studies were conducted at the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre in White City Campus. Read more

October 2025

  • Valink Therapeutics closed an £8.9 million Pre-A financing round that will accelerate development of its novel oncology therapeutics. The I-HUB-based private biotechnology company is developing next-generation oncology therapeutics with a focus on bispecific antibody-drug conjugates (bsADCs) and complementary modalities for improved patient outcomes. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Valink’s pipeline of first-in-class treatments designed to deliver enhanced efficacy, safety and precision in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Read more.

June 2025

  • Scale Space-based biotech Portal Biotech announced a £27.1 million Series A raise – one of Europe’s largest investments into a life sciences tools company. This significant milestone positions the Imperial spin-out to deliver the “holy grail” breakthrough of full-length single-molecule protein sequencing, and promises transformative impact on drug discovery, precision medicine, and global biosecurity.  

    The funding round was co-led by the NATO Innovation Fund and Earlybird Venture Capital, with participation from existing investors SCVC, Pillar VC, 8VC, Amino Collective, and Outsized, as well as new investors We Venture Capital, British Business Bank and WS Investment Company (Wilson Sonsini’s venture arm). Read more
  • MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences spin-out Syntato confirmed Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) funding to advance chromosome engineering in crops. The funding award by ARIA’s Synthetic Plants Program will facilitate Syntato’s pioneering work in the field of deep crop re-engineering, focused on creating a potato variety with a novel chromosome by mid-2028. Syntato originated from the Synthetic Biology laboratory at the LMS, embedded within Imperial’s Hammersmith Campus. Read more
  • Non-invasive skin epigenetics pioneer Mitra Bio announced the award of a £2.2 million grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to run a multi-site clinical trial across four UK and EU hospitals. The EIC Accelerator is one of the most competitive funding programmes in the world.

    The study will provide further validation for Mitra Bio’s skin-tape DNA-methylation assay for early melanoma detection, aiming to relieve overstretched dermatology services and improve patient outcomes. Formed in 2020, the company’s mission is to leverage genomics to increase health span and enable precision therapies for the skin. Read more

May 2025

  • Carbon Cell raised £1.2m in a pre-seed round to scale its novel, plastic-free foam made from biochar and natural polymers. Founded by Imperial alumni, the company provides an alternative to polymer-based foams, with a patent-pending, plastic-free foam. Carbon Cell’s material can replace plastic foams like expanded polystyrene, expanded polypropylene and PUR/PIR – a collective market worth over $109 billion.

    Making extensive use of Imperial’s extraordinary entrepreneurial ecosystem, Carbon Cell was a finalist in WE Innovate 2023, took part in The Greenhouse accelerator from Undaunted – winning best pitch in its cohort – and joined Imperial Venture Mentoring in 2024. Undaunted is a collaboration between Imperial’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment and the Royal Institution. Read more
  • Solena Materials raised £5.1 million seed funding – following a £3.1 million pre-seed funding round in 2022 – that the company will use to produce protein fibres at scale.

    The Imperial spin-out – based at I-HUB – is harnessing AI to custom-design fibres at the molecular level which are then produced using engineered microbes. Its AI techniques allow it to optimise performance characteristics of the fibres such as appearance, hand-feel and tensile strength, with the potential to create new and higher performing fashion, sports apparel, and technical textiles. Read more

April 2025

  • 14 pioneering start-ups received funding support as part of Cohort 8 of Undaunted’s Greenhouse Accelerator programme. The year-long climate accelerator is designed to prepare participants for investment and accelerate commercial success. 

    Through The Greenhouse, early-stage deep tech, fintech, and cleantech ventures gain access to a distinctive 12‑month programme offering up to £20,000 in equity‑free grant funding, alongside Imperial’s world‑class facilities, expertise, and networks. Participants also benefit from tailored coaching, industry mentorship, and practical workshops. Undaunted’s flagship initiative, the programme is hosted at Scale Space. Read more

Heading into 2025

  • In the last two weeks of 2024, climate tech start-up Arborea announced a raise of £4.1 million a key funding round. Headquartered at White City Innovation District’s I-HUB and in Portugal, Arborea will use the new funds to launch its first commercial-scale protein production facility based on its Biosolar Leaf system for carbon-reducing food production. The company’s Biosolar Leaf technology aims to produce far more protein per square mile of land than traditional agriculture while reducing the need for climate-intensive livestock practices. Read more

Imperial Initiatives

  • £1 million award to MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (MRC LMS) to boost life science partnerships in White City – November 2025  

    This award was directed to support eight innovative companies working in partnership with the MRC LMS. The funding is designed to accelerate translational research projects, helping early‑stage ventures bridge the gap between laboratory discoveries and commercial applications. The award highlights the growing emphasis on fostering collaboration between academic science and entrepreneurial spin‑outs, ensuring that promising biomedical innovations can move more rapidly into clinical development and ultimately benefit patients. Read more

  • £45 million GSK funding for Fleming Institute collaboration – November 2025 

    Pharmaceutical leader GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) committed £45 million to a major collaboration with Imperial’s Fleming Institute, strengthening ties between industry and academia. The partnership is closely linked to Imperial’s Drug Discovery Hub – based at I-HUB – which provides cutting‑edge facilities and expertise for early‑stage drug development. This funding will support joint research programmes, infrastructure, and training initiatives, positioning the Fleming Institute as a central node in the UK’s drug discovery ecosystem. The collaboration underscores GSK’s confidence in Imperial’s research capabilities and its role in shaping the future of therapeutic innovation.  Read more

  • European COST award for new research network in edge deep learning for particle physics – June 2025

    Imperial secured European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) funding to establish a new pan‑European research network focused on applying edge deep learning techniques to particle physics. The Edge Deep Learning for Particle Physics (EPIGRAPHY) network will be led by Dr Benedikt Maier, Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Imperial’s I-X Centre for AI in Science in White City Innovation District. 

    The network will unite researchers across Europe to tackle challenges in high‑energy physics experiments, where vast amounts of data require advanced machine learning methods. By embedding AI at the “edge,” the project aims to revolutionize how particle physics data is processed, opening new frontiers in fundamental science. Read more

  • £962,928 award for FULL‑MAP battery research initiative – March 2025

    Imperial was awarded nearly £1 million as part of FULL‑MAP, a major European‑funded programme that seeks to transform battery research through artificial intelligence. The project leverages the Royce at Imperial facilities in the Sir Michael Uren Hub in White City, which provide state‑of‑the‑art laboratories for materials science and energy storage research.

    FULL‑MAP aims to accelerate the discovery of next‑generation battery chemistries by integrating AI‑driven modelling with experimental data, reducing the time and cost of innovation. Imperial’s role in the consortium highlights its leadership in sustainable energy technologies and its commitment to advancing solutions for the global energy transition.  Read more

  • £15 million ARIA funding for breakthrough brain research – January 2025 

    Imperial received £15 million from the UK government’s ARIA initiative to support pioneering brain research. One of the four funded projects is being led by Dr Nir Grossman at the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial – based in White City Innovation District – and focuses on novel approaches to treating neurodegenerative diseases. ARIA funding awards are designed to back high‑risk, high‑reward science, enabling researchers to pursue bold ideas that could transform understanding of the brain and lead to breakthrough therapies. Imperial’s success in securing this funding underscores its global leadership in neuroscience and its commitment to tackling dementia and related conditions.  Read more


Looking Ahead to 2026  

2025 has been another year of consolidation and confidence for White City Innovation District. Significant investment, substantial grant awards in strategic sectors, and major global partnerships underscore the District’s growing influence as a commercial gateway to the world. As we move into 2026, the district’s successes provide a strong foundation for continued innovation, investment and global leadership. 

The momentum of 2025 positions White City Innovation District for even greater impact in the coming year. With Imperial College London’s campus expansion, continued government and industry support, and a thriving community of entrepreneurs, White City is set to play a pivotal role in shaping the UK’s innovation landscape. 

We’ll be sharing more news and insights from our global pathfinder community in the year ahead, as innovation continues to thrive and new opportunities emerge.

From all of us here, we wish you a joyful holiday season and a successful start to 2026.

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