Bioscope: Cambridge biotech gold extractor firm eyes IPO
A Cambridge-based firm that can extract gold and precious metals from old circuit boards for electronic devices is mulling an initial public offering.
Bioscope Technologies, which uses micro-organisms to draw out the metals, currently has a £12.8m turnover. Growing the company beyond this will require extra cash, both from internal sources and eventually from external investors, according to owners Simon Taylor and Nick Razey.
Taylor said: “If we are going to expand quickly we will need a lot of cash. It could be a really interesting float. If we took that direction we would build up a management team that has experience of the stock market.”
The telecoms moguls, who hold the majority stake in Bioscope Technologies, have invested £10m into developing Bioscope’s five patents.
The owners are considering an IPO or private equity funding to support the significant investment needed for equipment and waste electrical stock to fuel their expansion, according to The Times.
Taylor and Razey previously co-founded Interoute Telecommunications, a broadband network operator that was listed on the London Stock Exchange in the 1990s.
They did not say where they might float their business this time around.
Bioscope Technologies is scaling up production at its facilities in Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds, and Reading. It will have four of five more plants in England within a couple of years, as well as in Wales and Scotland.
These sites currently operate IT recycling centres for clients such as BT, Lloyds Bank, the NHS, and the government.
From 2021 to 2023, they recycled nearly 5,000 tonnes of copper from waste equipment, a feat that would normally have required 62,000 tonnes of ore to produce.
Razey said that a carbon credit pricing policy by the next government would greatly boost the business, as current regulations allow companies to export waste without penalty. “There’s no financial penalty for the guy who chucks it in the furnace,” he said.