Scope Fluidics closer to obtain financing from the EIB

The Supervisory Board of Scope Fluidics, a Polish medical diagnostics company, has consented to the conclusion of a warranty agreement with the European Investment Bank. A General Meeting of Shareholders will be held in the coming weeks, which will decide on the issue of warrants necessary for the Company to perform the agreement. The agreement complements the financing agreement for up to EUR 10 million signed in September 2020.

The EIB funding will be deployed to support the company’s efforts to develop new and powerful solutions for ultra-rapid characterisation of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and rapid detection of bacterial and viral pathogens, i.e. the development and commercialisation of the BacterOMIC and PCR|ONE projects. Scope Fluidics employs innovative microfluidic technologies involving the manipulation of micro volumes of fluids in a single-use diagnostic cartridge.

The European Investment Bank is a renowned business partner which offers project financing to Scope Fluidics on favourable terms. We are delighted that an institution with such extensive experience in financing European life science ventures is willing to become involved in financing our projects, comments Szymon Ruta, Member of the Board and Chief Financial Officer of Scope.

According to the financing agreement and the warrant agreement, upon concluding the latter, Scope Fluidics will be given the option to take advantage of repayable debt financing of up to EUR 10 million. The repayment period of the debt is 5 years from the release of individual tranches, and the interest rate is fixed at 3-4 per cent, depending on the tranche. In addition, the company, subject to the approval of the General Meeting of Shareholders, will issue 126,576 subscription warrants and offer them to the EIB free of charge. Each warrant will entitle its beneficiary to subscribe for one share of the company at a nominal price of PLN 0.10. The possibility to exercise rights from warrants will be proportional to the payment of individual tranches of financing to the company. The payment of the first tranche (EUR 4 million) will entitle the Bank to exercise rights from 40% of the warrants, the payment of the second tranche (EUR 3 million) to exercise rights from 30% of the warrants, and the payment of the third tranche (up to EUR 3 million) to exercise rights from the remaining 30% of the warrants.

The planned conclusion of the warrant agreement is a follow-up to the financing agreement concluded last year. Its conclusion is not tantamount to drawing the first tranche of financing. The purpose of the agreement is to secure financing for our projects. Diversification of financing sources is an element of the business model of Scope Fluidics Group, Szymon Ruta adds.

Scope Fluidics’ agreement with the EIB is the first project in Poland under the Infectious Diseases Financing Facility (IDFF), part of Horizon 2020, supported by the European Commission. EIB funding fills a gap in the market of available financing options for companies developing new vaccines and drugs, innovative medical and diagnostic devices or novel research infrastructure to combat infectious diseases.