Black Opal Ventures Hosts Inaugural Global Growth Event in London

Black Opal Ventures brought together a remarkable group of founders, investors, clinicians, and technologists for our very first Global Growth Event in April in London, UK. From thought-provoking fireside chats to six high-caliber pitches, the day was a testament to the extraordinary innovation emerging from the UK and European startup ecosystem.

The day’s program began with two fireside chats. Our co-founders, Eileen Tanghal and Dr. Tara Bishop, opened the event before welcoming an exceptional lineup of external voices to the stage.

The Health & Tech Bio Fireside Chat featured Rebecca Canter, Executive Director at Eli Lilly and Company, and Dr. Karen Kirkman, Chief Medical Officer at Deloitte UK. Rebecca, a PhD-trained neuroscientist with over a decade at the intersection of pharma and biotech VC, brought thoughtful discussion of the exciting innovation in healthcare and life sciences. Karen, a Partner in Deloitte’s Health Strategy Team and lead of the Global Clinical Network, offered a system-level view on NHS transformation and the future role of technology in care delivery.

The Deep Tech & Security Fireside Chat featured Laura Jaques, Acting Head of Investments at NSSIF, and Clayton Williams, Managing Director of IQT International. Laura brought a nuanced perspective on the funding landscape, syndication and investment in critical technologies, while Clayton, who oversees IQT’s deep tech portfolio across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, spoke to the frontiers of quantum, space, robotics, and next-generation communications.

The pitch sessions were the centerpiece of the afternoon. From over 50 applications, just six companies were selected to present.

HealthTech & Tech Bio Pitches

Respiro Diagnostics presented a breath-based liquid biopsy platform for lung cancer, using extracellular vesicles from exhaled breath to guide treatment selection. With a completed clinical study in mesothelioma backed by Cancer Research UK and a follow-on lung cancer study at Aalborg University Hospital in preparation, Respiro is building a non-invasive diagnostic tool with growing clinical interest across asthma, pulmonary hypertension, and interstitial lung disease.

Medwise.ai is the AI clinical assistant built for UK and European doctors, think a European equivalent of OpenEvidence, recently valued at $12B in the US. Since launching in April 2025, the company has grown 16× in eight months and now processes over 150,000 clinical queries a month from more than 10,000 doctors across 3,300 NHS organisations, capturing roughly 50% of UK primary care in under a year. Founded by a Cambridge-trained doctor and a CTO who previously built and sold an AI company to Meta.

Oncocine is an AI-native company harnessing patient tumour biology and unique immune signatures to generate personalised mRNA cancer vaccines within hours. Their ONVAC platform integrates spatial microenvironment intelligence, neoantigen discovery, and predictive machine learning to build adaptive cancer immunotherapy that evolves proactively alongside shifting cancer biology.

Deep Tech & Security Pitches

Living Optics builds hyperspectral cameras that capture 96 wavelengths of light, far beyond the three wavelengths visible to the human eye or a conventional camera. Their solution is 50× faster, 5× more precise, and 50× more affordable than traditional hyperspectral imagers, and in the past six months alone they have sold development kits to NVIDIA, Applied Materials, Honda, PepsiCo, Lam Research, Jaguar Land Rover, and Chevron. The technology can detect hidden subjects, quantify biological markers invisible to the naked eye, and identify the country of origin of a subject’s clothing, the defence and intelligence applications speak for themselves.

SCI Semiconductor is a UK-based fabless semiconductor company delivering ultra-secure, memory-safe computing for AI/ML, control systems, and mission-critical applications. Designed and implemented in the UK and fabricated in Dresden, Germany, their MCU portfolio provides sovereign-grade security across critical infrastructure, industrial, and defence sectors, through established partnerships with government, world-renowned technology leaders, and academia.

Bitfount is a federated AI platform for life sciences and clinical research that connects trial sponsors, CROs, clinics, hospitals, and AI developers to improve clinical trial success rates and reduce time to market, all without requiring any site to give up control of their data. In a world where data privacy and regulatory compliance are increasingly complex, Bitfount’s approach is timely.

After a closely contested afternoon, two companies emerged as the winners of the day. Congratulations to winners Respiro Diagnostics and SCI Semiconductor.

We would like to thank our generous sponsors, DLA Piper and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer.