Altima and Finance Wales back Acuitas with €1m+

Amy King
24 January 2012

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Welsh medical company Acuitas Medical Limited has secured a funding round of just more than тЌ1m from private and institutional investors including Altima Partners and Finance Wales. According to Acuitas, the funding round was oversubscribed.

The transaction brings total investment made by Finance Wales in Acuitas Medical to more than £1m from its total commitments of over £335m.

All previous investors in Acuitas have reinvested to support plans to bring its magnetic resonance imaging software fineSA to the market and demonstrate its clinical efficacy in a range of liver, lung, brain and bone diseases.

Company
Based in Swansea and founded in 2006, Acuitas develops digital biopsy technology. The company's patented fineSA technology provides an add-on sequence to standard MRI technology and enables soft tissue structures to be sampled at 40 times the spatial resolution of regular MRI in just 15 seconds. The software, which has undergone initial testing, will initially be applied to liver, lung, brain and bone pathologies and is able to detect early-stage textural changes that indicate the onset of disease.

The company is a recipient of a substantial ongoing Single Investment Fund grant from the Welsh Government.

Over the past three years the company has appointed new members to its clinical and advisory board including Chairman Sir Michael Brady, an established imaging scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society. Investors were attracted by the strong management and board expertise.

People
Investment executive Dr Richard Thompson led the transaction for Finance Wales. Professor Sir Michael Brady is chairman of Acuitas. Peter E Taylor is the company's CEO and co-founder.

Advisers
Equity (Finance Wales) – Hugh James (Legal).
Company – JCP Solicitors (Legal).