"A textbook example of how the commercial potential of university based research can be taken up by an entrepreneurial company and developed into a thriving profitable enterprise"
Astron Clinica, a spin out company from Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP), has announced a multi-million pound funding round with Kuwait Finance House (Bahrain) (KFH Bahrain).
The company, which specialises in skin imaging technology, has developed a suite of non-invasive products that allow skin care specialists to identify and diagnose skin diseases including skin cancer.
For example, suspicious moles can be examined up to 2mm below the skin without painful surgery.
Astron Clinica is the first of several companies to be spun out of CDP and has, in five years, developed a healthcare business spanning three continents.
Commenting, Matt Schumann, a director with CDP, says: "Astron Clinica is a textbook example of how the commercial potential of university based research can be taken up by an entrepreneurial company and developed into a thriving profitable enterprise with world-wide sales and significant market potential.
"The fact that the company can attract investment from such a major backer is testament to Astron Clinica's market leading position".
CDP is itself a successful product development company with an international client base.
The company actively pursues a policy of developing commercially viable new technologies and applications in-house, maturing them, creating management teams, attracting funding and successfully spinning them out.
CDP is currently incubating a pipeline of other likely spin out companies in sectors as diverse as interventional cardiology, GPS, micronanotechnology and holographics.
Experience gained in developing 'next generation' products for its client base, coupled with its knowledge of creating successful spin out companies has given CDP invaluable insights into every aspect of technology business processes - from identifying likely technology solutions and potential product winners, incubating them and developing market appraisals, to creating management teams and attracting funding.
