Bio-magnetic sensor technology company Neuranics, a joint spinout from the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, has secured £1.9m investment in a pre-seed round that included Old College Capital, the University of Edinburgh’s venture investment fund.
The round was led by Par Equity and the University of Glasgow and London-based Creator Fund, who back scientific founding teams, also participated.
Neuranics develops pioneering magnetic sensors integrated with semiconductor technology for health, fitness, and metaverse applications. Neuranics’ patented technology uses scalable spintronics sensors powered by semiconductors to detect tiny magnetic signals from organs of the body – for example the heart and muscles of the arms, which the company says could transform the current shortcomings of health monitoring devices and human-machine interfaces.
The company was co-founded by chief technology officer (CTO) and Professor of Nanoelectronics at the University of Glasgow, Hadi Heidari; Lead Engineer Dr Siming Zuo, and University of Edinburgh Professor of Digital Health and Neuranics’s chief strategy officer (CSO), Kia Nazarpour.
The company’s magnetocardiography (MCG) sensors are easier to use than traditional electrocardiography (ECG) sensors. In a human-machine interface application the magnetomyography (MMG) sensing system can estimate single finger movements by detecting the magnetic activity of the forearm muscles. These sensors improve the latency issues when used to control a robotic hand, or interact with virtual objects in the metaverse.
Neuranics’s chip-scale sensors are low-cost, scalable, low-power, and operate at room temperature, as opposed to the current method of measuring magnetic signals which are characterised by large, complex, expensive, lab or clinic-based equipment.
CEO Noel McKenna said:
Our breakthrough technology will enable much better sensor resolution for human-machine interface, will have huge benefits for health and fitness devices, and also controllers in the metaverse. We see global demand for our technology, and we are already working with several Tier 1 consumer electronics groups. We want to be the world’s leading magnetic sensor company, selling our sensor chips or licensing our technology into hundreds of millions of products per annum. ”
Robert Higginson, Partner, Par Equity said:
Rarely do we discover both a transformational technology and such a well-rounded team, with whom we can partner over the long-term to create a company capable of radically improving a broad range of use cases in a number of industry verticals. Neuranics’s patented technologies compliment many other technologies developed by our portfolio companies and are a good example of Par Equity’s tough-tech focus. ”
Andrea Young, Head of Investment at Old College Capital, said:
We are delighted to have participated in Neuranics’s first funding round and to be supporting a joint spinout that is commercialising innovative IP from two of Scotland’s leading universities. The Neuranics team is extremely ambitious, and we look forward to working with them to achieve the company’s potential across multiple market segments. ”
Photo: (L-R) Kia Nazarpour, Hadi Heidari and Noel McKenna of Neuranics (by Stewart Attwood)
