Cydar Medical maps AI future with $11.5m Series A funding
Cydar Medical has capped a triumphant 12 months with the successful completion of an $11.5million Series A funding round, including a $3.7m cornerstone investment by Pembroke Venture Capital Trust, to advance its pioneering AI-driven surgical maps platform.
Founded in 2012, Cydar uses AI to transform the way information is provided to clinicians undertaking image-guided minimally invasive surgery (MIS), simplifying complexities within operating theatres.
Barrington-based Cydar’s first product, Cydar EV Maps, is being used at leading hospitals across the globe to optimise endovascular MIS procedures. The product creates a patient-specific 3D map of soft tissue, providing an integrated solution for procedure planning, intra-operative navigation and post-procedure review.
As the AI learns from surgical procedures it can help better inform clinical decision-making and future care. Along the way the AI and automation of processes within the software have been shown to increase clinician confidence and reduce procedure times, reduce radiation exposure for patients and the clinical team, and improve clinical workflow efficiencies.
Paul Mussenden, CEO of Cydar Medical, said: “We are pleased to have closed this Series A funding round backed by Pembroke VCT and Downing Healthcare Ventures EIS. We are also appreciative of the significant continued support from our existing shareholders and warmly welcome our new investors.
“Over the past year we have made excellent operational progress, having released significant new product functionality, enrolled the first patients in the ARIA4 randomised controlled clinical study to demonstrate the clinical and cost effectiveness benefits of the use of Cydar EV Maps, and agreed the installation of the product at more than 50 new centres across the UK, US and EU, in part supported by establishing a number of important collaborations with world-leading industry players.
“Cydar Medical is at a key inflection point and we are working to leverage our novel world-class platform and capabilities to rapidly scale our intelligent surgical maps offering through increasing the number of end-users and launching additional value-add capabilities on the platform.”
Cydar EV Maps has software-as-a-medical-device certification with an EU/UK CE mark and US Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance.
This Series A funding round will support the expansion of the company’s operations, science and development, business development and customer onboarding and service teams.
Meanwhile, Ken Hitchner has been appointed as chairman of the board with immediate effect. Lord Mervyn Davies of Abersoch, who served as chairman since January 2017, will step down, along with Dr Franz B Humer who has served as a non-executive director since 2017.
Ken brings over 30 years of strategic healthcare advisory, M&A, underwriting and other transactional expertise. A former carrier-based fighter bomber pilot for the US Navy, Ken was a member of the Goldman Sachs global management committee, and chairman and CEO of Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, from 2013 to 2019. Prior to this he was Goldman Sachs’ global head of healthcare banking and global co-head of TMT banking.
“We are delighted to welcome Ken Hitchner as chairman,” Paul Mussenden said. “His depth and breadth of global healthcare experience is particularly relevant at this time.”
