News | PET Imaging | July 16, 2021

Swiss Nuclear Medical Imaging Company Gets Financial Boost

Positrigo receives funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC Fund) for its breakthrough brain PET scanner technology

Positrigo founders Max Ahnen, Ph.D. (left) and Jannis Fischer, Ph.D.

July 16, 2021 — Positrigo, a company developing nuclear medical imaging devices to advance functional imaging, today announced that the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund) awarded the company during this year’s funding cycle with EUR 1.5 million to top up the second tranche of Positrigo’s series A and committed to invest additionally up to EUR 3.5 million in a future financing round. After receiving the prestigious EIC Accelerator grant last year, this additional funding is testament for Positrigo’s breakthrough technology and is exclusively granted to high impact and deep tech start-up companies.

Positrigo is an ETH Zurich start-up, developing ultra-compact Positron Emission Tomography (PET) systems. The company focuses on delivering versatile head PET systems with applications in early dementia diagnosis and other brain related disorders.

“Positrigo’s cutting-edge technology and its market potential will allow to meet the increasing demand for PET examinations in the coming years and make brain scanning widely affordable. I am glad the EIC Fund invests into this skillful team of innovative entrepreneurs to commercialize the technology and scale up the company of brain PET scanners for an accessible early discovery of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Heidi Kakko, EIC Fund Investment Committee member.

Jannis Fischer, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Positrigo stated: “We are honored and pleased about the trust and continued support we receive from the EIC. This additional funding will allow us to accelerate our efforts to commercialize NeuroLF, a small and compact brain PET scanner, to enable clinicians the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Earlier this year the company finished the first in-vivo clinical trial to demonstrate that their innovative brain PET scanner performed successfully in a highly constrained environment. This accomplishment was possible thanks to the collaboration of interdisciplinary teams at University Hospital Zurich and the ETH Zurich. “We are grateful to have such great clinical and academic partners which support us to develop cutting-edge technology”, concluded Max Ahnen, Ph.D., COO and co-founder of Positrigo. “The recognition by EIC motivates us even more to foster these collaborations with the goal to advance the nuclear medical imaging field.”

For more information: www.positrigo.com