Belfast medtech firm axial3D secures £2.4m funding

Belfast-based medical tech company axial3D has announced that it's raised £2.4m of investment and will soon expand and create more jobs.

If you've been watching the Northern Ireland tech scene, you've most likely seen some of the impressive work done by medtech firm axial3D. The company turns data from medical scans into highly accurate custom 3D prints to be used by surgeons in pre-operative planning. Its most famous case involved producing a model of a donor kidney highlighting a tumour, which allowed surgeons to remove the tumour safely and go ahead with the transplant.

The company has now announced that it's raised £2.4m in a Series A investment round, led by London-based science and tech investor Imprimatur Capital Fund Management. The investment round also included a set of US angel investors and local groups TechstartNI, Clarendon Fund Management, Co-Fund NI, and Innovation Ulster Ltd. Crucially, many of the US investors are surgeons who see the value in axial3D's work first-hand.

The company is now planning expansion into the USA, additional job creation, and an increased research and development focus. At NI Dev Conf recently, we heard about some of the fascinating work axial3D had been doing in automating some of its more complex manual tasks by using machine learning. This automated 3D printing solution for healthcare is helping surgeons to improve outcomes in complex cases around the world.

Daniel Crawford, CEO at axial3D, said, “The closure of this investment round marks an important milestone for our company. It will accelerate our growth within new markets and enable us to bring our 3D printing solution to more healthcare organisations, helping them to drive down costs, improve compliance and ultimately, enhance patient care.”

Tim Brundle, Director of Research & Impact at Ulster University said: “Ulster University’s investment company, Innovation Ulster Ltd, is proud to have participated in this investment round and assisted with the access to the necessary capital for the scale-up of axial3D.”

Source: Written based on press release