Healthtech company TidalSense, formerly Cambridge Respiratory Innovations, has closed a £7.5m fundraising round.
The funding round was led by investors Downing and BGF, with the capital going towards building out TidalSense's diagnostics business further and targeting the primary care and diagnostics provider market in the UK.
Downing initially invested in the company in 2020 and is continuing to support its growth, now it has also rebranded to TidalSense.
The Cambridge-based company has created a handheld medical device (N-Tidal) that detects changes in lung function sensitively and enables quicker, more accurate and automated diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with asthma to follow.
COPD and asthma currently affect 1/10 of the world’s population, a figure that is rising steadily. It is one of the costliest conditions within healthcare systems, with the majority of costs associated with hospitalisations due to patient exacerbations in the later stages of disease. Early detection and diagnosis have the potential to slow the trajectory of the disease and globally, the COPD and asthma diagnostics and monitoring market is estimated to be $8.2 billion per year.
Dr Ameera Patel, CEO of TidalSense commented: “COPD is the third leading cause of death in the world and prevalence of respiratory diseases is rising. But the current clinical pathway for COPD diagnostics is stuck in the 1800s and is ineffective, inefficient and expensive. In England alone, the NHS estimates that a third of people with hospital admissions from COPD have not been diagnosed, by which point their disease has progressed, their quality of life has deteriorated and the cost to the healthcare system has ballooned.
“Quick, reliable and accurate diagnostics have the potential to slash waiting lists and slow the trajectory of respiratory diseases. That’s why we’ve developed N-Tidal, which will enable earlier, accurate detection of COPD and will result in better patient outcomes and reduced costs for healthcare environments in the long-term.”
Matt Pierce, Investment Director at Downing, said: “The UK currently has some extremely exciting R&D projects in the med-tech and life science sectors, which are attracting both investment and attention. TidalSense is a company which is a front-runner in cutting-edge, healthcare AI innovation, an area which has strategic importance to the UK and which also reflects global growth and demand.”
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