Siloton secures new funding of £860,000 for its initial product launch

Insider letter

• Bristol-based healthtech startup Siloton has secured £860,000 in funding to further develop its Akepa optical coherence tomography (OCT) chip technology, which plays a crucial role in tackling the UK’s most common cause of vision loss, age-related Macular degeneration, could play (AMD).
• The funding will support the commercial launch of Siloton’s OCT chip, with the aim of capturing the world’s first chip-based OCT image of a living eye in a commercial setting by the end of the year and releasing a research version of the device in 2025.
• Siloton’s compact, affordable chip technology could save the NHS over £1 billion a year by allowing patients to monitor retinal diseases such as AMD and diabetic macular edema at home, reducing the need for frequent hospital visits and reducing the burden on the healthcare system.
• Image: Co-founder of Siloton (from left to right): CEO Dr. Alasdair Price, CTO Dr. Euan Allen and CCO Dr. Ben Hunt.

PRESS RELEASE – Siloton, the Bristol-based health technology start-up, has secured £860,000 to drive the commercial rollout of its ground-breaking eye imaging chip technology, which could help tackle the leading cause of vision loss in the UK .

The funding package will help Siloton further develop its Akepa optical coherence tomography (OCT) chip technology and launch a version of the device for researchers in 2025. Later this year, the company aims to deliver a world first by capturing the first chip-based OCT image of a living eye in a commercial setting – a key milestone for its future use by physicians.

Evenlode Impact Investments committed further capital in the latest round alongside members of the South East Angels, the Francis Crick Institute and other experienced angel investors. This was complemented by non-dilutive funding from a grant from Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst, bringing the company’s total funding to date to £1.7 million.

Siloton’s technology aims to make diagnosis and monitoring of a range of treatable retinal diseases more affordable and accessible by compressing a tabletop full of heavy, expensive and fragile components onto a single chip smaller than a £1 coin. The technology could save the NHS more than £1 billion a year and allow patients to monitor their condition at home instead of having to visit hospitals regularly.

Diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinal vein occlusion and diabetic macular edema affect millions of people worldwide and put them at risk of blindness. According to the Macular Society, AMD is the most common cause of vision loss in the UK. Approximately 39,800 people develop wet AMD every year.

said Dr. Alasdair Price, CEO of Siloton: “Siloton has assembled a uniquely qualified team capable of driving technology development at an unprecedented pace. This new support will help us take the next step towards commercialization by shifting the focus from research and development to product development.

“The number of people with retinal diseases is growing. New, more affordable and accessible OCT systems like our Akepa technology will be critical to providing precise and efficient care to patients. This could, in turn, help reduce avoidable blindness, save healthcare providers billions of pounds and ease pressure on already overstretched eye hospitals.

“We are on the cusp of a significant milestone with our technology and look forward to sharing this in the not too distant future.”