Amazec Photonics, a Dutch medtech startup leveraging the power of, you guessed it, photonics, has raised €1.5 million in a seed funding round. The up start intends to use the capital to further develop its diagnostic devices suitable for clinical trials.
When speaking photonics and the Netherlands, chances are you’re likely to find a mention of cross-border growth accelerator and ecosystem of photonic chip technology organisations, PhotonDelta, in the ink, and today’s announcement by Amazec would be no different.
Alongside, PhotonDelta, a number of undisclosed private investors have contributed to the €1.5 million seed round.
While photonic technology tends to make a splash, particularly when it comes to usage in quantum computing, lasers, and ever-faster bandwidth applications, as evidenced by Amazec Photonics, the light-driven microchip technology can also be harnessed in the field of medical diagnosis.
Existing cardiovascular monitoring solutions are often complex, invasive and inaccurate. Thermodilution, today’s de facto technique used to measure cardiac involves injecting a known volume of liquid upstream of the heart and then measuring temperature changes downstream through specialised catheters inserted into the patient.
Beyond being uncomfortable for the patient, the method is unable to be used reliably during routine examination, contains a large variation between measurements, and is a rather blunt tool used for a precise procedure, say nothing of the associated costs.
In contrast, Amazec’s solution uses photonics-based technology to measure temperature changes to a level of precision of 0.0001˚C.
To put this number in comparison to current methods, today’s level of accuracy stands at 0.01˚C. Moreover, in contrast to traditional methods which are capable of taking one measurement at a time, Amazec’s offer is capable of multiple, real-time measurements.
Beyond accuracy and moving into the realm of human comfort, the monitoring device is completely external, thus jettisoning the need for the insertion of catheters.
Amazec CEO Pim Kat shared:
“The number of people suffering from cardiovascular diseases has risen by 93 per cent over the past 25 years and now impacts an estimated 550 million patients worldwide. Many of these people will die or suffer poor health outcomes because the tools we have to diagnose them simply aren’t good enough.
“Our solution can make a real difference because, not only does it vastly improve the accuracy of testing for cardiovascular disease, it is also much less invasive and simpler to use. This will substantially reduce costs and open the door to many more people being tested much more regularly.
“With this funding round we will be able to build ten prototypes and undertake extensive clinical trials with the intention of producing and selling devices across the EU by 2028.”
According to the startup, it will begin clinical trials at Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven later this year, with an expansion to three other hospitals planned in 2025. with the aim of beginning full scale production and sale across the EU in 2028.
Lead image via Amazec Photonics.
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