Vexev, a medtech startup, has secured $8.5 million to upgrade its new Surry Hills facility as it prepares for global expansion.
Founders Dr John Carrol and Dr Eamon Colley are working to market and gain regulatory approval for the very first Vevex software and device in Australia and the United States.
The pair, who acquired their Ph.D. from the University of NSW in 2014, built a scanning system that could potentially be deployed in diagnostic clinics and imaging labs, and in medical settings where patients may need ongoing monitoring and care for vascular diseases.
They are developing a 3D medical imaging device that will help vascular surgeons work with more precision on their patients.
Dr Carrol said that current equipment options to help diagnose vascular disease are limited and reliant on hand-held ultrasound devices that require highly-trained and skilled medical workers.
In many cases, such equipment and expertise are lacking in regional or rural areas. Often, doctors opt to delay scanning as the final step, which may be too late for preventing diseases.
For years, doctors have been studying vascular disease and its links to blood flow in the arteries and veins. Their studies have led to the development of fluid dynamics modelling to improve clinical diagnostics.
“Vexev’s technology creates a new paradigm for low-cost, high-accuracy vascular scanning that can take place further upstream,” Dr Carrol said.
“We created an ultrasound-powered imaging robot and software platform: to automatically take fast and consistent 3D scans, to supercharge the diagnostic power of vascular clinicians, with the simple push of a button.
“We brought on a team including former F1 engineers to design the hardware and model the complex blood flows.”
Vexev’s funding comes from Neotribe Ventures, a San Francisco-based investor; imaging firms Propeller and Dovetail, and venture capital Blackbird. The medtech startup hopes to finalise their expansion by 2023.