LYVA Labs Research
Overview
LYVA Labs (legal entity LCR Ventures, trading as LYVA Labs) is a not-for-profit innovation and investment organisation based at Central Tech, 31 Russell St, Liverpool. It was created in 2021 under founding CEO Lorna Green to drive economic growth in the Liverpool City Region (LCR) through the commercialisation of innovation. Returns on its investments are reinvested into the fund and into future programmes. Since 2022 it reports £4M of pre-seed investment across 37 LCR start-ups, £16.5M of additional co-investment from 23 funds alongside LYVA Labs, 15 companies relocated to the region, more than £23M in grant funding secured for local SMEs, and over 160 companies helped.
Investment Thesis
The firm is a regional, mission-driven early-stage investor. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority gave LYVA Labs £7M to run a Pre-Seed Challenge Fund that closes the early-stage funding gap in health and life science and deep tech, creates jobs, and builds an ecosystem of high-growth companies. A Clean Tech for Health Fund was launched in November 2025. Focus areas are health and life science (diagnostics, medtech, therapeutics, synthetic biology), deep tech (AI, imaging, advanced manufacturing, VR), and clean tech (energy data, greenhouse gas capture, sustainable food processing). The fund is explicitly not suitable for pharma, drugs, alcohol, or consumer health businesses.
Stage Focus
Pre-seed is the core. Third-party profiles also list seed, and LYVA Labs regularly co-invests in larger rounds led by others (for example SenseAI, whose seed round was led by Foresight, and the OCUWELL GBP 700K seed round). It also runs three support programmes that feed the pipeline: the Incubator (six months of support for early-stage founders), Accelerate (commercial traction for start-ups and SMEs), and Adapt (expert support and a GBP 15K grant for established SMEs).
Check Size
The fund invests GBP 10,000 to GBP 250,000 per company for idea development and commercialisation. Follow-on cheques are made, for instance an additional GBP 125K into OCUWELL in April 2026.
Lead Tendency
Mixed. At the earliest stage it often invests alone, and it states it will consider co-investment alongside other investors in a larger round. Where it joins a seed round it follows a named lead.
Recent Activity
- Apr 2026: additional GBP 125K into OCUWELL as part of a GBP 700K seed round.
- Mar 2026: backed Spotlight Pathology, AI decision support for blood cancer diagnosis.
- Feb 2026: joined the iiCON consortium as a core partner.
- Dec 2025: invested in Respiosa, a next-generation treatment for sleep apnoea.
- Nov 2025: launched the Clean Tech for Health Fund and hosted its 2025 Demo Day.
- Oct 2025: first investment in OCUWELL, portable corneal diagnostics.
- Sep 2025: backed SenseAI Vision in a seed round led by Foresight.
- Sep 2026: held the 2026 Incubator Demo Day; applications for the 2027 Incubator cohort opened in October 2026. The fund is actively deploying.
Portfolio Highlights
The investment page lists 21 portfolio companies, including Daresbury Proteins (difficult-to-express proteins), Myma Medical (automated ICSI for IVF), Entropix (novel enzymes), Spotlight Pathology, GutSee Health (microbiome and phage therapies), Refold Therapeutics (light-chain amyloidosis), CCI Photonics (15-minute infectious disease identification), Heatio (home energy data), Universal Atmosphere Processing (greenhouse gas capture), Atomik AM (binder jet additive manufacturing), SenseAI Vision, Sum Vivas (AI digital humans), Birl (resale for fashion retailers) and Gigmate (fan and gig platform). No large exits are publicised.
Team
- Lorna Green, CEO and founding CEO
- Steve Stuart, Chairman
- Ivo Kerkhof, Chief Operating Officer
- Akshay Bhatnagar, Head of Investments
- Harry Chrimes, Investment Manager
- Vijay Curthan, Investment Portfolio Director (formerly Citigroup, GSK, Deloitte, Catapult Ventures)
- Elaine Loukes, Investment Portfolio Director (part-time, formerly Cambridge Enterprise)
- Farhad Ahmed, Head of Strategic Partnerships
Decision Process
Applications are screened by the investment team, who may route a company to the Incubator or Accelerate first or write an investment proposal that is pitched to an investment committee. After investing, LYVA Labs may appoint a non-executive director and supports grant applications, research partnerships, and introductions to next-round investors. It is an Innovate UK Investor Partner.
Founder Preferences
Innovative start-ups and spin-outs, often university or research-led, in health and life science, deep tech, or clean tech. Companies must be based in, or willing to relocate to, Liverpool City Region. Warm intros are not required; the firm takes inbound applications.
Geographic Focus
Strictly Liverpool City Region, UK, with relocation to the region an accepted route in.