Software firm raises £600K in funding
Manchester Imaging, a dental diagnostic software company has raised a £600,000 investment from the GM&C Life Sciences Fund.
The fund is managed by Catapult Ventures, and NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which in turn is managed by Mercia Fund Managers, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.
The investment will support the development and commercial launch of the company’s first suite of software products that use machine learning and computer vision processes to automatically detect the very early signs of tooth decay, which can go unseen by dentists.
Manchester Imaging, a spin-out of The University of Manchester by its agent for IP commercialisation, UMI3, is based on more than a decade of academic collaboration between Professor Hugh Devlin, Professor of Restorative Dentistry, and Dr Jim Graham, Honorary Reader in the Centre for Imaging Science.
Tony Travers, chief executive of Manchester Imaging, said: “I’m very pleased to be working with Catapult Ventures and Mercia Fund Managers, and to have secured the funding to enable Manchester Imaging to commercially launch CARIESDENT for the detection of early stage tooth decay.”
Dr Mark Wyatt, investment director at Mercia Fund Managers, said: “We’ve been very impressed with the progress made by the company and the well-rounded, highly experienced and commercially focused leadership team.”
In addition to the investment, Kevin D’Silva, a venture partner with Catapult Ventures, will join the board of Manchester Imaging as non-executive chairman.
The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.
