adsilico, a Leeds-based healthtech company, has raised £10 million (approximately $12.5 million) in Series A funding to expand its artificial intelligence platform that simulates medical device performance across diverse virtual patient populations. The round was led by PXN Ventures, with participation from Northern Gritstone and Parkwalk.
The company’s technology creates generative AI-powered virtual patient models, enabling medical device manufacturers to test implants such as heart valves and stents before initiating clinical trials. This approach allows engineers to evaluate how devices perform across different anatomical variations—a capability that addresses a persistent gap in traditional development processes.
Addressing Anatomical Diversity in Device Design
According to Sheena Macpherson, CEO and co-founder of adsilico, the current system leaves patients underrepresented in the design phase. “Patients miss out on the chance of a life-saving device, or face uncertainty about whether it will work for them, because people like them weren’t represented when it was designed and tested,” Macpherson explained. “We give medical device manufacturers early insight into the impact of anatomical diversity when it can still shape the design and help avoid costly mistakes or harm to patients.”
The funding injection comes at a critical moment for the digital health sector, where simulations and virtual testing environments are increasingly recognised as essential tools for accelerating device development while reducing costs and risks associated with traditional iterative prototyping.
Scaling Operations and Therapeutic Focus
adsilico intends to deploy the capital across several strategic priorities. The company will develop advanced virtual heart models to enhance cardiovascular device assessment capabilities. Additionally, it plans to expand into neurovascular device simulations, broadening its applicability across multiple therapeutic domains. The funding will also support workforce expansion to enable the company to enter new clinical areas and scale operational capacity.
Founded in 2024, adsilico represents a new generation of healthtech innovators leveraging computational power to solve longstanding challenges in medical device development. By simulating device performance across anatomically diverse populations before clinical trials, the company aims to reduce development timelines, lower costs, and ultimately improve patient outcomes by ensuring devices work effectively across different body types and physiological characteristics.
European Context
The funding round underscores the continued strength of AI-driven healthtech investment within the United Kingdom startup ecosystem. While the broader European startup sector has faced financing headwinds in recent years, innovation in medical simulation and computational healthcare continues to attract significant capital from both established venture firms and specialist healthtech investors. adsilico’s success reflects growing confidence among investors that AI-powered solutions can address genuine inefficiencies in medical device development, positioning Leeds as an emerging hub for digital health innovation alongside traditional centres in London and Cambridge.