The round for UNSW spinout Vexev was backed by existing investors Blackbird, Neotribe, Startmate and Horizon, with TreeArc Investment Group, TEN13, Bioshore and Alumni Ventures also joining the cap table.
Vexev was founded in Sydney in 2018 by John Carroll and Eamonn Colley, after studying the links between blood flow in veins and arteries and the development of vascular disease.
They set out to develops advanced vascular imaging tech designed to make high-quality scanning more accessible, consistent and scalable. The result is a product called VxWave, a robotic tomographic ultrasound platform.
The startup has now raised $27m in total, including $8.5 million in 2022. The new funds will support a push for FDA regulatory approval in the US as well as manufacturing scale-up and commercialisation in that market.
Cardiovascular disease is the world’s leading cause of death, with 20 million lives lost annually.
Carroll, Vexev’s CEO, said VxWave combines robotics, AI and ultrasound imaging to automate vascular ultrasound acquisition.
“We believe high-quality vascular imaging should be available wherever patients receive care, not only when a specialist is available,” he said.
“We are starting with dialysis patients because the clinical need is clear, but our vision is much broader: to build an autonomous imaging platform that helps clinicians make faster, more consistent and more informed decisions across vascular disease.”
A clinical study with US dialysis provider Renal Care demontrated early clinical validation of VxWave in routine dialysis clinic workflows and Vexev hopes to expand its autonomous imaging platform into additional vascular disease applications like cardiovascular and peripheral artery disease, while building the clinical evidence to support future AI-enabled decisions.
Vexev was selected for the Startmate accelerator in 2019.
