Financial assistance from the Government in Wales and the promise of long-term support has played a key role in persuading ReNeuron, a leading clinical stage stem cell business, to make the move from Guildford. The aid forms part of a 33m financing package the company says will transforms its prospects.

The company is raising 25.35m through an over- subscribed placing of just over a billion shares at 2.5p, a 20pc discount on recent trading, to fund therapeutic programmes through trials and development.

Major new investors, including Invesco where chief investment officer Neil Woodford manages extensive medical funds and Abingworth have subscribed to the placing while directors are chipping in 110,000 for 4.4m shares.

Michael Hunt, ReNeuron chief executive, said the fund raising would transform the financial position of the business and its future prospects. The Welsh grant package would enable the company to take control over the manufacture of stem cell therapy candidates as they get closer to market.

Sir Chris Evans, Welsh born serial entrepreneur, a ReNeuron shareholder and chairman of Arthurian Life Sciences which arranged the Welsh funding, has played a key role in persuading ReNeuron to make the switch. He helped the company get off the ground out of his own pocket and is joining the board as a non-executive director.

ReNeuron i s the first company in the world to have been granted permission to run clinical trials of ground breaking technology to treat patients with a stroke. The company is also developing stem cell therapies for other conditions such as critical limb ischaemia, a serious and common side effect of diabetes and blindness causing diseases of the retina.

The investment boost accompanied the release of full year figures showing ReNeuron had revenues of just 17,000 in the year to March 31 and a pre-tax loss of just over 7m.

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Stem cell company ReNeuron relocates to Wales