Silveray secures £5m to expand X

Stockport-based Silveray has raised £5m to accelerate production of its next-generation X-ray technology and expand into the healthcare market.

Silveray specialises in flexible, ultra-thin X-ray film that could make medical imaging sharper, less rigid and more comfortable for patients. Its technology currently has a number of industrial uses, such as testing the integrity of pipes in the oil and gas sector as well as detecting faults in hard-to-reach parts found in aerospace and automotive machinery.

Beyond its industrial use, the company is now exploring new deployments in healthcare, including making X-ray scans more accessible, portable and affordable to check for early signs of chronic disease.

Silveray says another area of interest for the company is in breast cancer screening, where pain from the compression caused by mammography machines is often cited as a reason for non-attendance for screenings. Radiotherapy and dental scans are also target fields.

The new funding will be used to grow the firm’s team by 50% over the next two years to scale up production and expand commercial relationships.

PXN Ventures led the round, with co-investment coming from Silveray’s existing investors including Northern Gritstone, Empirical Ventures, ACF Investors and Future Planet Capital via the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S). PXN invested via the GMC Life Sciences Fund By PXN Ventures.

Investment also came from NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance, which is managed by PXN as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF II).

“This round of funding will enable us to scale our reach beyond our first customers in industrial radiography, and to bring our innovative material to a wider group of applications in healthcare and beyond,” says Dan Cathie, CEO at Silveray.