52North, the med-tech company focused on transforming urgent care pathways in oncology, has announced the close of a major funding round, co-led by KHP Ventures, affiliated with King’s Health Partners in London, and Cedars-Sinai Intellectual Property Co. in California, affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centres in the US, as well as a £1.2m grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The deal marks the first instance of an investment being co-led by leading hospital ventures funds from both the UK and the US, underlining 52North’s positioning as a healthcare innovator for global impact. The company’s low-cost and accessible solutions, co-created with patients and clinicians, aim to improve patient outcomes and health equity, while also alleviating pressures on healthcare systems.
The funding will enable 52North to advance its products towards market, including the flagship Neutrocheck®, which was granted breakthrough status by the UK Government under its pilot Innovative Devices Access Pathway earlier this year. The point-of-care medical device and app is aimed for use by patients with cancer outside of hospital to monitor their risk of neutropenia or neutropenic sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication of chemotherapy. In addition, the funding will enable products to progress through the company’s Aster™ platform, remotely measuring cells at low cost, including in collaboration with strategic pharmaceutical partners, and will support 52North’s roll out of ACORN™, supported by NIHR, an AI-driven digital platform designed to enable safer delivery of acute oncology care.
