Edinburgh spin-out Actual Analytics raises £900K

Funding

Actual Analytics, a recent spin-out from Edinburgh University, has announced the completion of a funding round, securing over £900,000 to commercialise its first product, iBehave. The consortium of investors was led by Discovery Investment Fund and included Highland Venture Capital, TriCap and the Scottish Enterprise Co-Investment Fund.

Actual Analytics uses video analysis technology to automatically analyse behaviour, as a tool for assessing efficacy in the development of new drugs treating diseases of the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Actual Analytics says iBehave will cut costs and remove a significant bottleneck in the drug discovery pipeline. The technology has been validated with some of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies and academic laboratories across North America, Asia and Europe, and it is expected that these organisations will become early customers.

The system is the culmination of over five years of research within Edinburgh University’s School of Informatics. Funding for the project to date has included a two year Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept award and significant assistance from Informatics Ventures.

Douglas Armstrong, Actual Analytics chief scientific officer, said, “The financial and mentoring support we have been given by the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept and University of Edinburgh ProsPeKT programmes have been invaluable in enabling us to translate our research into this high potential business.”