‘Game-changing’ ultrasound robot wins venture capital backing

Local venture capital heavyweight Blackbird Ventures is backing an ultrasound robot designed to detect vascular diseases, that its founders say could be a game changer for treating some of the most common diseases in the country.

Dr John Carroll and Dr Eamonn Colley co-founded Vexev after completing their studies at the University of New South Wales, where they were looking at patient blood flows to predict conditions impacting arteries and veins, which can result in serious medical events like a heart attack or stroke.

The duo have now received support from Blackbird Ventures to build a device that automates ultrasound procedures and can produce 3D images just like a CT scan or MRI.

After two years of “stealth mode”, the business will emerge this month to start trials of the product at Eastern Suburbs Vascular Imaging at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

The company will test its product against existing technology used on patients in hopes of moving towards commercialisation.

Dr Carroll said he and Dr Colley, who have so far raised $1.5 million in venture capital funding, wanted to make a tool that would expand access to quick and effective health scans, including in regional areas.

“It was [about finding] a way for patients to get imaging with the lowest barriers to accessibility, that would make something like screening at scale possible,” he said.

The duo arrived at the doorstep of Blackbird Ventures with the idea and “a laptop between the two of us” and have spent the past three years working on the prototype.

Vexev’s flagship product, known as the “tomographic ultrasound robot”, lets patients put their arm or leg on the device for a scan and will deliver a 3D picture of the patient’s blood vessels.