This will delve a little deeper on individual companies and focus on non-house stocks under £200m market capitalisation to raise awareness
30th January 2026
Alphabetically arranged
Share prices and market capitalisations taken from Alpha Terminal from the current price on the day of publication.
Top three shareholders are taken from the websites of the companies that we are writing about, unless there is a more up to date TR-1 notification RNS announcement.
These companies have global opportunities and are funded for accelerated growth
FAB Transformational Platform
QUBE Quantum Steps
Fusion Antibodies 13.25p £14.92 (FAB.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End March, reported 4 September, Interims to September, reported 24 November
Top Three Shareholders:
Canaccord Genuity Group 7.10%, Rathbone Investment Management 6.57%, Unicorn AIM VCT 5.63%.
Key Investment Points:
Scalable Platform, Growing Pipeline, Closing a major contract
Fusion Antibodies is a specialist Contract Research Organisation (CRO) providing a range of pre-clinical antibody engineering services for the development of antibodies for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications. These services are provided on a contractual basis to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The market spend was $1.68bn in 2024 and projected to reach over $3.54bn by 2030 which is a CAGR of 13.1%. An antibody is a protective protein produced by the immune system in repose to antigens (viruses).
After several years of investment, the OptiMAL platform was launched on 16 December 2025 to a US antibody industry audience. The OptiMAL platform incorporates the Company's naïve (natural) synthetic library of antibody sequences and the Mammalian Display used to select individual antibodies from the Library against a target of interest. The OptiMAL library and the method for designing the Library are protected under a US patent, with patents pending in other territories. This technology will bring more human therapeutic antibodies to the market.
On 27 January, around £1.3m net was raised at 13p to accelerate commercialisation, invest in strategic partnerships and targeted global marketing, and further strengthen the proprietary technologies. The funds will also generate supporting data for its key proprietary platforms for the rapid and cost-effective development of next-generation antibody-based therapies. The key market is North America, where OptiMAL will be promoted through various marketing activities. Initial soundings to potential partners resulted in multiple opportunities being registered in the pipeline with a combined potential value of more than £1m.
Additionally, a validation project was run with the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) which delivered ‘hits’ against the three selected targets including antibodies with very high affinity for both proteins and peptides. The NCI are interested in using OptiMAL as a frontline human antibody discovery platform for a range of other targets and these discussions also encompassed possible additional projects within the Library. Negotiations regarding the expanded proposed programme require formal approval at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), of which the NCI is part, and may take several further months to complete due to the scale of the proposal.
At the Interims to September 2025, which were reported on 24 November, the loss was reduced by 32% to £0.51m on turnover of £0.84m. Net cash in September was £0.25k, with debtors of £0.5m. After the recent £1.3m funding, we assume a similar burn rate, and estimate that the Company should be funded for over 12 months and so well placed to deliver against its strategic objectives. Cashflow break-even remains a prime target and management is confident in the platform's ability to generate solid revenues to eventually transform the business.
Hybridan Comment: The recent fundraise further derisks this global opportunity which could soon be boosted when final terms are agreed with the NIH.
Quantum Base Holdings 25.50p £20.67m (QUBE.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeway, 21 November 2025 at 21.5p
Financial Calendar:
Year End April, Reported 31 October, Interims to October, Interims reported 29 January 2026
Top Three Shareholders:
Robert Young (Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer, Director) 11.85%, Octopus Investments Ltd 11.29%, Philip Speed (Non-Executive Director) 10.0%
Key Investment Points:
Build once sell often, Long-term contract, Well funded
A quantum science Company creating a new global standard in authentication reported its first interim revenue to 31 October 2025. This is a spin off from Lancaster University and listed on AIM in April 2025 raising £4.8m at 23.1p. The revenue was a moderate £260k, but compares to nil last year, and the Operating loss decreased to £1.28m compared to an operating loss of £2.58m in the prior period.
Institutional investors, including VCTs, followed the IPO investment with a further £4.26m on 2 December 2025 at 21p. The funds are to pursue the ambitions of the global authentication standard through its patented Q-ID solution, which is practically impossible to replicate. The authenticity tags are unbreakable, uncopiable, and can be read with a standard smartphone. Counterfeiting is estimated to cost businesses and tax authorities at least $2.8 trillion in lost revenue per year. Q-IDs can be printed on almost anything so can be applied to a wide range of end markets.
The initial sales efforts went into brand protection and there is strong interest and engagement from security printers and brands owners. There are partnership discussions and print trials with international security-printing companies throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. R&D continues to enhance the ink durability, substrate versatility and new printing methods. The patent portfolio has been expanded with multiple new UK patents granted.
The first Q-ID application was with a government tax-stamp department. Tax stamps are official labels applied to products such as tobacco, alcohol or pharmaceuticals to indicate that the appropriate taxes have been paid on them. Quantum’s authentication app can identify all counterfeit tax stamps. The Company is in further discussions with tax authorities and producers of tax stamps and further contract wins are expected.
An exclusive agreement for the art market has been won worth a minimum £9.4m over 15 years. The Customer will implant Q-IDs on each piece of art that is managed through its registry, enabling seamless authentication through the integration of Quantum Base's software into its app. This will provide 100% unbreakable quantum security that protects against forgery and creates a verified record of ownership.
Other sectors being evaluated are pharmaceuticals, apparel, luxury goods, automotive, aerospace and precious-metals. The Board believes that the scientifically proven, mass-producible quantum-security solutions, the scalable design-and-license model provide a strong foundation for growth.
Hybridan Comment: On track to sign four commercial contracts in the current financial year, shareholders joining the authentication journey will be hoping for a flow of multi-year applications.
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