City tycoon Spencer backs £70m blood-testing start-up Osler

Michael Spencer, the City tycoon, is to plough millions of pounds into an University of Oxford‎ spin-out which is pioneering a new technique for detecting diseases from a single pinprick of blood.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Spencer's private investment vehicle is subscribing to a significant chunk of shares ‎being issued by Osler Diagnostics.

The £30m funding round, which is expected to value Osler at £70m, is likely to be announced before Christmas.

The company, which is backed by Oxford Sciences Innovation, is one of a breed of British medical technology start-ups which investors believe have the potential to become globally successful.

Osler is developing a handheld diagnostic device that enables the detection of biomarkers present in cancers, cardiovascular and neurological diseases.

Its device, which is similar to that used to detect blood glucose levels, removes the need for a vial of blood to be taken and sent away to a laboratory for testing.

Professor Jason Davis, whose research is underpinning Osler‎'s development, has said that the cost-effectiveness of the technology behind the device could make it easy to deploy in the developing world, making it "an invaluable tool if and when we face another Ebola or Zika-style outbreak".

Osler is part of a portfolio of companies developed under the aegis of Oxford Sciences Innovation, with others including Mind Foundry, a data analytics start-up, and Iota Sciences, which has forged a new approach to single-cell cloning.

OSI's own investors include some of the world's most prominent financial names, including the Wellcome Trust medical research charity, the hedge fund Lansdowne Partners and sovereign wealth funds such as Temasek Holdings.

The British fund managers Neil Woodford and his former firm, Invesco (Frankfurt: 3IW.F - news) , are also backers, as is Sir Charles Dunstone, the Carphone Warehouse co-founder.

Mr Spencer's arrival as a shareholder in Osler comes as part of a series of investments he has made since securing the £3.9bn sale of Nex Group, the financial infrastructure business he founded.

One of the most successful entrepreneurs of his generation, he has put money into businesses such as Veridium, a biometric financial technology start-up, and Chapel Down, the English winemaker.

Mr Spencer's fortune has also been boosted in recent weeks by the early performance of shares in AJ Bell, the broking platform, which has seen its value surge since its listing.

Oxford Sciences Innovation did not respond to a request for comment, while a spokesman for Mr Spencer declined to comment.