snap40: Health Tech Startup Secures Largest Ever Scottish Seed Round

  • snap40 in £2 million fundraising to accelerate growth
  • Dual software-hardware solution catches deteriorating health earlier
  • Deal signed with NHS England and clinical study underway

Left to right are David Bowie, Christopher McCann and Stewart Whiting of snap40 (Photo: Business Wire)

EDINBURGH, Scotland--()--Health tech startup, snap40, has a clear mission to change healthcare globally by enabling hospitals to catch deteriorating health earlier using its own medical-grade vital signs monitoring wearable arm-band and accompanying analysis software platform. The Scottish startup, led by CEO and co-founder, Christopher McCann - a former medical student at the University of Dundee who left in his third year to found the company - has secured £2 million in funding in what is thought to be the largest ever seed round by a Scotland-based startup.

The first tranche of the investment - led by Edinburgh-based investment firm Par Equity - closed at the end of September and will allow the company to grow its already highly skilled engineering and data science team, complete clinical trials and gain regulatory clearance, opening up the entire EU market. The company also plans to move quickly into the US market, opening a US office in 2017.

McCann started the company as a medical student working on hospital wards where patients are only intermittently monitored. Christopher witnessed patients avoidably deteriorating due to late recognition of warning signs and decided to set up snap40 as a result. Joined by co-founders, David Bowie and Stewart Whiting, Christopher left medical school to build and grow the company, with a mission to disrupt a market dominated by large, expensive bed-side monitors which anchor patients to beds.

Edinburgh-based snap40 uses a single medical wearable device to continuously monitor patients from the upper arm across more health indicators than any other single device on the market. Crucially, the company then uses this data to identify, in real-time, patients at risk of deteriorating. By alerting doctors and nurses early, they can take action, potentially saving the patient's life, improving outcomes, and allowing them to return home sooner.

The patient monitoring market is estimated to be worth over $35 billion but remains dominated by a small number of multi-nationals focused on critical care monitoring. While a number of new startups have entered the space, none monitor, from a single device, the breadth of vital signs afforded by snap40 nor are they focused on early detection of deterioration.

Christopher McCann said “This investment is based on the strength of our product and the progress of our amazing team. We are excited to work with Par Equity and the rest of our shareholders as we build snap40 into a dominant player in the global people-health monitoring market. We have a product that can save lives, while providing clinical and economic benefits to health services.”

Robert Higginson, Partner at Par Equity, said “We are delighted to be supporting snap40, a business with an ambitious vision for the future. The team has already demonstrated the ability to deliver to its plan, which is why we are supporting the business from such an early stage. This is a global market with significant potential and we believe snap40 is the company to succeed.”

The company has already built a core team of 5 and is recruiting a further 4 software engineers and data scientists over the coming 5 months, as well as building its commercial team during 2017. snap40 is currently demonstrating the performance of its product in a major clinical trial at a UK hospital and will be on the market in early 2017. The company has substantial customer interest already, including a contract with NHS England via the SBRI contracting process, the first phase of which has been successfully delivered.

Contacts

snap40
Christopher McCann
Co-Founder & CEO
christopher@snap40.com
or
Freer Consultancy
Nick Freer
+44 (0)7841 571 871
nick@freerconsultancy.com

Release Summary

snap40: health tech startup secures largest ever Scottish seed round

Contacts

snap40
Christopher McCann
Co-Founder & CEO
christopher@snap40.com
or
Freer Consultancy
Nick Freer
+44 (0)7841 571 871
nick@freerconsultancy.com