NEWS | SMF ED SNOW HAS HIGH HOPES FOR LATEST INVESTMENT

Hands-on investor Ed Snow is aiming to make a real impact on the world of healthcare through his work with an innovative Welsh startup.

Ed, a venture capitalist and Sainsbury Management Fellow, is a specialist tech investor.

After completing a Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Cambridge and a few years involved in startups, Ed embarked on an MBA at INSEAD in the late 1990s after being awarded a scholarship through the Sainsbury Management Fellowship.

Now, he’s Chairman of ProColl – a synthetic biology company that manufactures recombinant collagen and other high value proteins at scale.

With collagen a key structural component of organisms, the demand for high quality, consistent and affordable collagen for healthcare applications is higher than ever. For example, collagen can stimulate the growth of T cells in-vitro, which are used for cutting-edge life-saving cell therapies.

Getting involved with ProColl was a ‘no-brainer’ for Ed, after he heard about the Swansea-based startup through his work with the Royal Academy of Engineering’s accelerator programme, which has seen many SMFs act as mentors for up-and-coming engineers with business ideas.

He was partnered with ProColl founder and Chief Executive Jonathan Widdowson and has been helping the company to grow ever since.

Ed said: “I immediately saw the potential of the company and asked Jon if I could invest. Unfortunately, under the terms of the mentoring, I was barred from doing so. So, I pulled out of the programme and chose to back Jon.

“Since they’re a relatively young company, as well as helping to bring new partners and investment on board, I’d like to think that I’ve supported them a lot with company positioning, investor relations and by trying to offer the founders a different perspective, so they’re not working in an echo chamber.”

ProColl was spun out of Swansea University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering in 2018. Today, it supplies collagen to research, medical, cosmetics and food and beverage customers globally.

Ed added: “The university were doing lots of work with collagen, but the collagen they would buy in would vary depending on the batch. When the properties differ batch by batch, it can wreck the experiment and halt the science. The last thing you want is projects failing because of inconsistencies.

“A lot of people talk about collagen, but it’s its structure that’s the really important thing. There’s lots of things people call collagen but ours is the whole molecule so it retains its shape and so properties.

“And while our main competitor can only manufacture Type I collagen, we can produce Types I, II and III. So, it’s a really big breakthrough made by a group of very skilful engineers.”

Dr Jonathan Widdowson said: “Since joining ProColl, Ed has been invaluable in the business’ growth and development, from fundraising through to customer account management. Ed has brought his wealth of expertise in financials, business operations, investor relations, hiring and forecasting to ensure ProColl remains forward looking to further growth across multiple sectors. Ed’s business experience has been an essential addition to the team at ProColl, giving a multidisciplinary skillset to the board of directors and allowing us to develop as a cohesive team.”

Originally from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, Ed now lives in London. After a couple of years in banking following his time at INSEAD, Ed moved into the VC world at the turn of the millennium and has been independent for more than a decade. He believes obtaining a prestigious MBA has helped him to bring a rounded business expertise to the table of the startups he’s been able to help scale. He cites a quote from former Google X leader Obi Felten as chiming with the way he now views his own role in businesses: “I’m really good at translating between engineers, technical people and non-technical people, who sometimes don’t understand each other,” Felten once told the FT.

Ed added: “INSEAD was fantastic. Having been involved in start-ups and the world of work after my degree, I wanted to formalise my knowledge of business. We’ve recently just had the 25-year anniversary and it was great to catch up. The group I was there with was just superb – people from lots of different backgrounds, nationalities and experiences. As someone who grew up in the Midlands, it was eye-opening stuff.

“I’ve been involved in growth, whether supplying or deploying capital, for most of my career. I’m not really an entrepreneur or a founder, but more of a businessperson. Understanding the nuts and bolts – sometimes quite literally – of a business is really important. Bringing all those skills together is one of the things that business education excels at.

“Something that really stuck with me was one of the things that was said on a course – is the problem that you’re trying to solve actually valuable? Is someone going to pay you for this? Is it worth it? With this situation, we are probably the trailblazers in our field, and we want to grow sustainably, so the answer is definitely yes.

“In the VC world, raising money is obviously important. If deals aren’t profitable, we can’t then go and reinvest in other worthwhile projects. Making money also keeps people honest. But ultimately, this is about saving lives. Making access to medicine and cell therapies affordable is really rewarding for me.”

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