Deeptech company StandardX has raised £10 million in Seed funding to develop its isotope refinery and increase the production of rare isotopes used in healthcare and energy.
The funding round was led by Vsquared Ventures and East X Ventures. Other investors included firstminute capital, UKI2S, Brevan Howard Macro Venture and Geometry.
StandardX was founded in 2025 by Richard Pearson (CEO) and Ross Allen (CTO). Both founders are nuclear engineers with experience in building and growing technology startups. The company is developing an isotope refinery that can produce different types of isotopes at commercial scale.
StandardX has developed its own accelerator-based system designed to produce a wider range of isotopes using a standard industrial setup. The technology could also allow isotope production to take place closer to where the materials are needed.
Isotopes are used in healthcare, energy and other industries, but their production is currently concentrated in a small number of ageing facilities. StandardX is initially focusing on isotopes used for cancer diagnosis and treatment, including materials needed for targeted alpha therapies.
The company plans to supply its first isotopes to a medical research partner in 2027. Its technology is designed to produce isotopes already used by hospitals as well as materials needed by drug developers for new treatments that are not yet available at commercial scale.
Richard said: “Isotopes underpin the next era of innovation across several key sectors, but all share the same constraints around supply. Shortages are most acute in cancer medicine, already impacting patients today, and stalling progress in the development of next-generation treatments. This problem will only get worse, with new cancer cases projected to increase 67% by 2050. So we’re building the platform the world needs to address this.”
Ross added: “StandardX began with a problem: isotope supply limited by legacy infrastructure. This raise moves us from concept into engineering, physics into hardware, and conversations into delivery. Our immediate priority is our industrial site in London, where we will deploy our first isotope refinery system and work closely with clinicians and researchers to start building a reliable supply chain.”
Lise Rechsteiner, General Partner at Vsquared: “Radiopharma is approaching an extraordinary inflection point, but isotope supply simply hasn’t kept pace. StandardX is building a fundamentally flexible production platform that can move with the science, from the isotopes medicine needs today to those that will define the next generation of cancer treatment. We believe it can become critical infrastructure for the next era of radiopharma and Richard and Ross have the rare technical expertise and ambition to build it. Being located in London puts StandardX at the heart of one of Europe’s leading ecosystems for cancer research and clinical trials.”
StandardX produces rare materials that are important for healthcare, fusion energy and other advanced industries. The company is developing what it describes as the world’s first isotope refinery, using an accelerator system designed to produce different types of isotopes at a larger scale.
Based in the UK, StandardX aims to make the supply of these rare materials more reliable and widely available. The company is starting with isotopes needed for cancer diagnosis and treatment, with the goal of helping turn limited supplies into a more dependable source.
