MediSieve, the company behind the ground-breaking magnetic sieve that removes malaria-infected blood cells directly from patients' blood, has secured its place in the final round of MassChallenge UK.
MassChallenge is a global non-for-profit start-up accelerator and competition for high-impact, early-stage entrepreneurs.
It awards millions of pounds in no-equity, non-dilutive grants to start-ups showing the highest impact and potential during its eight-month selection process.
MediSieve is competing for shares of up to £500,000 in cash, which MassChallenge UK will award at the end of the programme in December.
The development is the latest in a long series of successes for MediSieve, which, in July, became a finalist in the Best Start-up Medtech Company category at the OBN Awards.
Speaking at a reception for MassChallenge UK finalists, Dr George Frodsham, founder of MediSieve, said: "It's been an overwhelmingly-exciting year for MediSieve.
“We've hit some big funding milestones that have enabled us to push forward with our product development, and won some prestige awards along the way.
“We're thrilled with the awareness that all this is raising for our device."
Dr Frodsham founded MediSieve in 2015 and, during the last 12 months, the company has:
- Secured £350,000 in seed funding from angel investors with expertise in the medical device and healthcare industries - including leading patent attorneys, former chief executives, and successful entrepreneurs
- Received a Pathfinder Award from the Wellcome Trust, providing the company with £102,000 to fund a 12-month project to manufacture and test clinical prototypes of its device
- Won an Innovate UK Smart 2015/16 Proof of Concept Award grant worth £100,000
- Taken the runner-up spot at Pitch@Palace 5.0. Held at St. James's Palace, London, the event saw UK entrepreneurs pitch to around 300 chief executives, angel investors, mentors and key business partners
- Presented at the Royal Society of Medicine's 12th Medical Innovations Summit
MediSieve's treatment could be used when malaria drugs become ineffective or to supplement existing drug treatments.
The magnetic device is aimed at the most-vulnerable malaria patients - those whose cases are severe or drug-resistant.
The MassChallenge UK Awards ceremony will take place on 1 December.
