OLIF Focused Spinal Implant Startup Raises £2.2 Million

Axis Spine Technologies, Ltd, based in St. Albans, UK near London, has completed a £2.2 million funding round led by ACF Investors.

This is the first investment from ACF Investors’ new Delta Fund. According to the ACF Investors’ website, the Delta Fund “operates a fast track process for more commercially validated UK businesses.” It “invests alongside lead angels with deeper sector knowledge who are making larger investments via equity or convertible loans.”

The funding also includes follow-on investment from Mercia Asset Management PLC’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Fund. When Axis was founded in 2017, Mercia was its first investor.

Axis develops anterior spinal implant technology including products that address the following anterior surgical approaches: anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF), oblique lateral interbody fusion (OLIF), and lateral.

The funding will be used in part to help launch its first implant system, the Axis-ALIF, in the United States. The Axis-ALIF “offers surgeons intra-operative flexibility to place an implant that more accurately matches a patient’s anatomy whilst also achieving superior corrections than existing interbody devices.” For OTW’s initial coverage of the Axis-ALIF, see “Axis Spine’s Modular Interbody Device Cleared.”

The funding will also be used to advance developments of “[o]blique, [l]ateral cage implants, as well as a highly differentiated access system.” Axis Founder and CEO Jon Arcos told OTW, “Axis now has the resources in place to not only further develop the team and prove the technology in Alpha, also to make refinements into Beta and progress the OLIF and [l]ateral cage concepts too. This is really promising and means that 2021 is going to be a busy one.”

Arcos continued, “We expect to raise further, and probably final, equity funds in Q4 of this year. At that stage we will have demonstrated the benefits of modular technology and created additional value across the product pipeline. Covid-19 has not been easy for anyone and Axis has of course been impacted with travel restrictions. Over the coming months we will bring U.S. talent into the team and speed up our sales and design team progress. Our goal is to be well positioned when Covid-19 travel restrictions ease to accelerate our roll-out.”