University medical spinout gains £3.5m investment in seed round

Medical modeling firm adsilico, a University of Leeds spinout, has gained a combined £3.5m seed funding from Northern Gritstone and Parkwalk Advisors.

The start-up uses computer modeling and simulation for produce scientific evidence about medical devices’ performance and safety prior to human clinical trials. Research for the technique was funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the University of Leeds’ Schools of Medicine and Computing.

The seed funding – £2m from Northern Gritstone and £1.5m from Parkwalk – will be used to fund essential development and build adsilico’s team.

Founder Professor Alejandro Frangi said, “Medical devices follow a lengthy evaluation with a tiny amount of scientific evidence currently derived from computer modelling and simulation. The cost is ever-increasing, delaying lifesaving benefits to patients.

“Northern Gritstone’s and Parkwalk’s investment and support will enable adsilico to offer a scalable solution to the medical device market to produce evidence on an unprecedented scale.”

Duncan Johnson, chief executive of Northern Gritstone, said: “Computational modelling has the potential to revolutionise the MedTech industry and reduce the risks to humans. Northern Gritstone is delighted to support adsilico’s team, who once again demonstrate that great science and technology-enabled businesses are being created in the North of England.”

Moray Wright, chief executive of Parkwalk Advisors, said: “We are proud to be backing adsilico through this seed funding round. adsilico’s pioneering approach to in-silico trials has potential to significantly accelerate the pace of innovation in medical device development. It’s fantastic to see this university spin-out take another step forward on its vision to bring safer and more efficient medical devices.”