Pembroke’s cornerstone investment will contribute toward significant hires across the Operations, Science, Research and Development, Commercial and Marketing teams to support business growth.
Pembroke VCT, the venture capital trust focused on backing early-stage businesses with exceptional founders and management teams, has made an initial investment of £3 million into Cydar Medical (“Cydar”), the surgical augmented intelligence company using software to revolutionise every stage of image-guided minimally invasive surgery
Cydar was launched in 2012 by founders Tom Carell, a vascular surgeon and Graeme Penney, an imaging scientist, having both recognised the difficulty surgeons experience when performing image guided procedures and the resulting inconsistency of patient care. They combined their expertise to develop Cydar Intelligent Maps, with the aim of advancing surgical care and in theatre visualisation and decision-making via one intuitive cloud-based platform
The first product from Cydar’s Intelligent Maps system, Cydar Maps, aids in planning, guiding and review of endovascular surgery using the latest in cloud computing, computer vision and machine learning technology. The Intelligent Maps system generates a 3D model of the surgical plan as well as enhanced, adaptable intra-operative visualisation to simplify the workflow for clinicians. The software, which has been used in the treatment of over 2,000 patients, has proven to reduce procedure time by 20% and radiation exposure for clinical staff and patients by 50%, as well as improve clinical outcomes and cost effectiveness of care.
In addition to optimising in theatre decision-making, clinicians benefit from Cydar’s Surgical Intelligence system which learns from every case to develop a deeper understanding of endovascular surgery, resulting in better outcomes for patients.
Pembroke’s cornerstone investment will contribute toward significant hires across the Operations, Science, Research and Development, Commercial and Marketing teams to support business growth. The investment will also be used toward installation costs and support customer service, as the software is adopted across further sites globally and will support development of further products from the platform.
Andrew Wolfson, CEO of Pembroke Investment Managers LLP commented: ’When we met Tom Carrell we were hugely impressed with his desire to develop a product that resulted in better patient outcomes. Working as an endovascular surgeon and seeking to solve a problem he encountered every day, Tom developed software to help carry out complex medical procedures, delivering results for both surgeons and patients alike. Under Tom’s leadership, Cydar has significantly scaled their team and are operational in 26 hospitals and we are excited about the growth prospects and opportunities that lie ahead.’’
Tom Carrell, Executive Director and Co-Founder added: “At Cydar, we have been on a mission to harness the power of cloud computing, computer vision and machine learning to improve the planning, guidance and outcome analysis of surgery. Our first product is bringing clinical benefits today to our rapidly expanding customer base in six countries. We are very pleased to partner with Pembroke VCT at this exciting stage as we scale up to realise our long-term vision to improve the outcomes of image-guided surgery for everyone.”
Paul Mussenden, CEO said: “Since I joined Cydar in October 2020, we have restructured the business, accelerated product development and evolved our go to market strategy by securing a range of commercial partnerships, such as that announced with Philips, the leading OEM, in January 2022. A number of other key partnerships are nearing fruition and, with the valuable support provided by Pembroke, we now have the building blocks in place to accelerate the growth of the business.”
