Respiro Diagnostics raises £1m to transform lung cancer detection
We’re excited to share that Zinc portfolio company Respiro Diagnostics has announced a £1 million pre-seed funding round to accelerate the development of its non-invasive liquid biopsy platform for the early detection of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.
The round is led by Zinc and SFC Capital, with additional backing from Amadeus Capital, the Conception X Angel Syndicate, KQ Labs (via the Francis Crick Institute), and strategic angel investors, alongside grant funding from Innovate UK.
For us, this milestone represents the latest chapter in a venture creation journey that began on Zinc’s Venture Builder Programme.
Respiro Diagnostics was founded by Alison Quinn and Dr Theo Issitt at Zinc. Together, they combined complementary commercial and scientific expertise around a shared ambition: to transform how respiratory diseases are diagnosed by making it possible to access clinically relevant information directly from the lungs without invasive procedures.
Today, lung cancer remains the world’s deadliest cancer. Around half of patients are diagnosed at Stage IV, when treatment options are significantly more limited. Existing diagnostic approaches often rely on invasive tissue sampling or blood-based testing, which can make it difficult to obtain the information clinicians need to guide treatment decisions.
Respiro is developing a different approach. The company’s platform uses a simple breath sample collected at the point of care and analysed using multi-omic techniques to profile DNA, RNA and proteins. By capturing biological material directly from exhaled breath, the team aims to enable earlier diagnosis and support more personalised treatment decisions for patients with lung disease.
The company has already completed initial testing with mesothelioma patients and will begin its first clinical study in lung cancer patients in September 2026.
At Zinc, we back founders tackling some of the world’s most important challenges with science, technology and exceptional entrepreneurial ambition. Respiro exemplifies that approach. Since first supporting Alison and Theo through our Venture Builder Programme and investing in the company in 2025 through our Science-for-Impact portfolio, we’ve seen the team build strong clinical partnerships and make impressive progress towards clinical validation.
Natalie Pankova PhD, Partner – Health & Life Sciences at Zinc, comments:
“Alison and Theo met at Zinc, and Respiro Diagnostics is exactly the type of business we back and help build in our Science-for-Impact portfolio. High calibre founders with a commercial and scientific complementarity, and a platform that extends across respiratory disease for a multi-billion-dollar diagnostics opportunity. There is potential here to change how lung cancer is detected, before patients are diagnosed too late to be treated. We’re proud to back the team in this round and look forward to continuing working closely with them as they move towards clinical validation.”
The new funding will support Respiro’s clinical research programme, team expansion and continued development of its device and laboratory workflow as it advances towards clinical validation.
We’re proud to have played a role in bringing this founding team together and supporting them in their company development . Congratulations to Alison, Theo and the entire Respiro team on this significant milestone. We look forward to partnering on this next step of your journey!
Join the Zinc community
Stay up to date with all Zinc updates and future posts as part of our fast growing community.
Featured Resources
Zinc Impact Report 2025
Science has the power to change the world – but only if the systems around it evolve. Zinc’s 2025 Science-for-Impact Report showcases a new model for how science, talent and capital can work together to tackle the most urgent challenges in health and the environment.
Across 38 pioneering Science-for-Impact ventures, a series of ecosystem-shaping partnerships and programmes, and a growing global community of talented innovators, the report demonstrates how frontier research is being transformed into scalable solutions for people and planet.
Through Zinc’s three pillars – Investment, Innovation Partnerships, and Inflection – Zinc is building the connective tissue of a new Science-for-Impact system. Explore the ventures, meet the founders, and see how you can join us in unlocking the extraordinary individuals who will unlock the future.
Zinc Impact Report 2024
Zinc’s mission is to make the UK the best place to successfully start a venture which can have a massive impact on the health of people and the planet.
Increasingly, we are building deeper science ventures that serve global, industrial customers in environment and health, giving access to impact at a global scale.
Our 2024 Impact Report explores the challenges that need to be tackled to empower and enable talented founders from around the world to solve critical health and environmental challenges at scale, from here in the UK.
This report showcases success stories from the Zinc portfolio, and highlights how Zinc – and our growing community of hundreds of Founders, Fellows, Coaches, Partners and Funders – are working together to build a world-leading “Science-for-Impact” ecosystem for inception stage ventures in health and environment.