DUBLIN VENTURE capital firm Seroba Kernel Life Sciences has led a €4.7 million investment round into British drug development company Provesica.
Cambridge-based Provesica has developed a therapeutic approach to overactive bladders and will use the funding to complete a phase II clinical trial during 2011.
Seroba Kernel last month led an £8 million (€9.5 million) funding round in Xention, which is developing treatments for heart murmurs. Provesica was spun out of Xention and is using the same technology platform to develop its overactive bladder treatments.
Following the investment, Graham Fagg of Seroba Kernel will join the Provesica board.
Separately, Sonru.com, a Wexford-company which has developed an automated video interviewing tool for recruiters, has raised €662,500 from Enterprise Ireland, a syndicate of private investors and subscribers to a Business Expansion Scheme. Sonru.com has raised over €1 million in the last 12 months.
Chief executive Fergal O’Byrne said Sonru.com would use the funding for product development and a major push into the British market. Earlier this year, it signed a reseller agreement with SaonGroup.com, the multinational online recruiter controlled by telecoms tycoon Denis O’Brien and his longtime business associate Leslie Buckley. Mr O’Byrne said the relationship with SaonGroup.com in Britain was “opening up a lot of high-end corporate accounts” to Sonru.com.
