Cardiff, Wales-based medtech company Bond Digital Health has raised £1m for its data capture and management system for lateral flow tests.
The startup, which was founded in 2016, said it will use the cash to increase staff headcount and provide additional resources to sales and marketing teams.
The equity funding came from previous investors and shareholders. It includes a £350,000 capital injection from the Development Bank of Wales, a regional SME investment company owned by the Welsh government.
The rest of the capital was provided by high-net-worth individuals via investment service Wealth Club. They include Bond Digital Health’s CEO Ian Smith and its chair Wayne Harvey.
“Now that we have several international customers signed up to our platform, we need to make sure we successfully service their needs 24/7,” said Smith. “This funding will help us do that by ensuring we have the right people in the right roles.”
Bond Digital Health has created a data management platform for lateral flow tests called Transform. Lateral flow test results, such as those from Covid-19 antigen tests, can be uploaded to the app to create a dashboard with real-time data.
Bond Digital Health said it aims to raise a further £500,000 before the funding round closes at the end of January.
It follows a previous £2m equity investment in 2020, which partially came from UK and Welsh government grants.
“Ian and the team at Bond have a bright future ahead as their technology has the potential to revolutionise the management of lateral flow test result data,” said Mark Bowman, senior investment executive at Development Bank of Wales. “We are proud to continue to support the growth of the business with our equity investment from our Wales Flexible Investment Fund.”