BIOCAPTIVA appoints Stephane Argivier as Chair to steer global growth

BIOCAPTIVA, a University of Edinburgh spin-out that develops advanced technologies to extract cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from blood for cancer liquid biopsies, has appointed experienced life sciences executive, Stephane Argivier as Chair to steer its next phase of international growth.

The company’s patented msX platform has the potential to improve the pace and scale of cancer research by addressing a long-standing bottleneck in how samples are prepared for liquid biopsy, which is a growing market in non-invasive genetic testing.

Bringing 30 years’ experience, including 15 years at board level, specialising in life science enabling tools, in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and critical raw materials, Stephane has built a career leading private, venture-backed and growth-stage businesses through periods of transformation, with particular expertise in strategy, commercial scale-up, governance, fundraising, organisational development and founder transitions.

Originally from France, Stephane has successfully led businesses through fundraising, growth acceleration and exit. As CEO of MIP Discovery, he secured significant funding while repositioning the company’s strategy towards higher-value markets. He later served for four years as a Non-Executive Director of Logical Biological, supporting its rapid growth, before stepping into the CEO role to lead its next phase of scale-up. Earlier, as Managing Director of SCIPAC, he oversaw sustained growth, expanded the business into high-value diagnostics markets and led its successful acquisition by BBI Group.

Stephane takes over as BIOCAPTIVA’s Chairmanship from Frank Armstrong, who served since the company’s inception, steering the business through its early technological, organisational and strategic development to lay solid foundations for commercial growth.

His appointment follows a series of significant milestones for BIOCAPTIVA including securing £1.5m funding led by existing investor Archangels and supported by Old College Capital, BBI, Scottish Enterprise and EverQuest Partners. BIOCAPTIVA also secured ISO 13485 certification, appointed Alan Schafer as Chief Technology Officer, and had a successful commercial launch of its technology platform, focused initially on the United States market.

Jeremy Wheeler, CEO at BIOCAPTIVA, said: “Every stage of a company’s journey requires different strengths. Frank’s leadership helped transform BIOCAPTIVA from an innovative technology company into a commercially ready business, and we are extremely grateful for everything he has contributed.

“As we now focus on scaling internationally and delivering the commercial potential of our platform, Stephane’s experience and reputation across the global diagnostics industry will be invaluable. His appointment marks another important milestone in BIOCAPTIVA’s evolution.”

Sarah Hardy, Director and Head of New Investment at Archangels, said: “BIOCAPTIVA is going from strength to strength and is poised to accelerate towards its commercial potential under Stephane’s strategic leadership. The appointment of Stephane is the natural progression for the next phase of BIOCAPTIVA’s growth, as it aims to accelerate commercial adoption, deepen strategic partnerships, support OEM opportunities.

“Archangels is proud to support BIOCAPTIVA and its vision for faster, better and deeper iteration and research on cancer, leading to better outcomes for potentially millions of people globally.”

Stephane Argivier, newly appointed Chair of the Board at BIOCAPTIVA, said: “BIOCAPTIVA has developed a highly differentiated and scalable technology to improve liquid biopsy workflows and sequencing data quality through enhanced pre-analytics. I am delighted to join as Chair and look forward to working with the Board and management team to accelerate commercial adoption and expand the technology’s impact across cfDNA sequencing applications.”

For further information on BIOCAPTIVA, please visit: biocaptiva.com