YFM backs firm fighting diabetes
YFM Group has invested £510,000 as part of a £2.6m funding round in a company which is developing new technology to help fight conditions caused by diabetes.
Digital Healthcare provides software and related services for large scale population eye screening and technology to manage information and images in clinical ophthalmology.
More than one million diabetic patients are cared for using Digital Healthcare’s OptoMize product with 39 regional Diabetic Retinal Screening Schemes providing services to patients which detect early and previously undiagnosed signs of diabetic retinopathy and other causes of blindness.
In the US the Company’s Retasure service to detect signs of retinopathy in diabetic patients is used by nearly 900 physicians in 19 states.
YFM Group managed British Smaller Technology Companies VCT2, has provided Cambridge-based Digital Healthcare with the funding which will help the company expand its core product line and broaden the company’s international presence.
A consortium of backers including Alliance Trust, who led the deal, Noble Group, and Paris-based Elaia Partners joined in the round.
The company has raised nearly £7.2m to date.
Mike White, Investment Director YFM Group says “As the original backers of Digital Healthcare, YFM has seen the business develop to become the leading provider of diabetic screening software to the National Health Service. Following its success in the UK, the company is now rapidly building a position in the emerging and much larger US diabetic retinopathy screening market. With a world class management team and software to match, we are confident that Digital Healthcare has a very bright future ahead.”
Mike O’Leary, Chairman of Digital Healthcare, commented “The company’s success to date in developing functionally rich software solutions based on leading edge Microsoft technology has been proven by the many implementations that we have. This additional investment will allow us to grow and develop into other territories and sectors of the healthcare market internationally.”
In the last 12 months Yorkshire-based YFM Group has completed deals worth more than £52m in 38 companies in the region.
