Sensor company raises investment to launch new fitness monitor

A Sunderland company that is developing an innovative healthcare and fitness monitor has raised a further £500,000 from the North East Venture Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia Ventures, to help bring it to market.

Applied Monitoring has developed a non-invasive way to continuously monitor lactate levels in blood, which are used to detect when athletes have reached peak exertion and plan their training regime. Following successful trials at Durham University, the company has signed a contract with a leading European microchip producer to create a miniature device that could be embedded in an armband and sync with a smartwatch.

The device would replace the need for professional athletes to have regular fingerprick blood tests and would make continuous blood lactate monitoring accessible to a much wider audience including amateur athletes, runners and fitness fans.

Applied Monitoring will commercially launch the product within the next 12 months and has already had interest from a number of major fitness and wearables brands. It also plans to develop a device for use in hospitals, where lactate levels can be used to detect sepsis which causes 48,000 deaths in the UK each year, and there is potential to use the technology for other purposes such as monitoring glucose levels.

Applied Monitoring was founded in 2018 by Jon Dixon, the former Head of B2B at Sainsburys and Argos, and Rob Connell, an NHS informatics specialist. They worked with Norway-based Professors Alex Mason and Olga Korostynska to develop their non-invasive sensor technology, which uses electromagnetic waves to detect biomarkers in blood.

The company first received funding from Mercia and the NEVF in 2022. The latest investment brings the total it has raised so far to over £1m.

Jon Dixon, co-founder and CEO, said: “A build-up of lactic acid causes muscles to seize up and athletes to suddenly ‘hit a wall’, but it’s hard for them to know when this will happen without measuring lactate levels. Fingerprick tests are uncomfortable, fiddly and not always accurate. Our device will overcome these problems and provide continuous monitoring, rather than a one-off measurement. This latest funding, together with our partnership with a major global chip manufacturer, will enable us to bring it to market.”

Ian Wilson of Mercia Ventures added: “Smartwatches can already monitor vital signs such as heartrate and temperature, and now all the big device manufacturers are looking for a way to monitor lactate levels too. Applied Monitoring is leading the way and has attracted interest from some of the major players. We look forward to the launch of the new device which could revolutionise the fitness market.”

-ENDS-

About Mercia Ventures

Mercia Ventures is a proactive venture capital investor focused on being the first-choice partner for growth. Mercia Ventures makes equity investments of up to £10million across all sectors, with specialisms in Software, Consumer, Healthcare and Deep Tech. 

Mercia Ventures is part of Mercia Asset Management PLC and sits alongside its wider private equity, debt and proprietary balance sheet capital operations. The Group has 11 offices in the UK and Mercia Ventures’ national footprint and 48 strong investment team draws on their experiences as founders, PhD scientists, software engineers, corporate financiers and management consultants to help our partner companies successfully achieve their ambitions. Mercia Asset Management PLC currently has c.£1.4billion of assets under management and, since its IPO in December 2014, has a portfolio of over 400 start-ups from pre-seed to Series B. Mercia Asset Management PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic “MERC”.

The Group raises its own Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Funds and details about open offers can be found through Mercia’s website.

Mercia Asset Management PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic “MERC” and includes the following wholly owned subsidiaries –

• Mercia Fund Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 524856
• Enterprise Ventures Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 183363
• EV Business Loans Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 443560

www.mercia.co.uk

About The North East Fund
The North East Fund is a suite of five venture capital and loan funds which was established in April 2018, to invest £130m in around 600 North East businesses in the period to December 2023.  The fund managers provide business development advice and investment finance to small and medium sized enterprises based in the seven Local Authority areas of North East England: Northumberland, North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside, Gateshead Sunderland and County Durham.  The programme encourages investment in and the commercialisation of new technologies, including low carbon technologies, as well as stimulating new business creation, private investment and entrepreneurialism in the North East, with a view to creating over 2,500 new jobs.  The North East Fund has overall responsibility for the programme, which is delivered through five separate funds, each managed by independent, FCA regulated fund managers.  Details of these, and up to date information on the progress of the programme, is available on The North East Fund’s website: www.northeastfund.org

The North East Fund has been established with funding from the North East of England European Regional Development Fund programme, the European Investment Bank and from returns on previous North East based, publicly supported investment funds.  It is jointly owned by the seven North East local authorities.

About the European Regional Development Fund

The North East Fund will receive up to £66,500,000 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.  The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund.  Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.

About the European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will lend up to £60,000,000 to the North East Fund programme.  The European Investment Bank is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.  For more information, visit: http://www.eib.org/about/index.htm