adsilico
A University of Leeds spinout creating virtual patient populations from anonymised clinical images to test implantable medical devices in simulation.
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Podcast Episode
🎙️ Deep Dive
Miro, Nous, adsilico — $1.36B closing, $17M for a household agent and £10M for virtual patients — Daily News October 26, 2026
Listen to the episodeAbout adsilico
Founded in 2024 as a University of Leeds spinout by Sheena Macpherson (CEO), Nishant Ravikumar, Zeike Taylor and Alejandro Frangi, adsilico uses generative AI to build virtual hearts and blood vessels from anonymised clinical scans. With its Virtual Chimera technology it runs physics-based simulations of how devices such as heart valves and stents perform across different patient populations, and plans to extend into devices for brain aneurysms. It has already completed projects with unnamed heart-valve and neurovascular device makers. On October 26, 2026 it closed a £10 million Series A led by PXN Ventures, with existing investors Northern Gritstone and Parkwalk, to grow from 14 to 34 people. The value of simulation will depend on its correlation with real clinical outcomes and on acceptance by regulators.
The Story
Born in 2024 at the University of Leeds from the work of Sheena Macpherson, Nishant Ravikumar, Zeike Taylor and Alejandro Frangi.
How adsilico works
Business Model
In silico trial projects and services for medical-device manufacturers.
Revenue Model
Revenue from projects with manufacturers; pricing undisclosed.
Products & Services
Key Products
- Virtual Chimera
- Sperimentazioni in silico su popolazioni virtuali
Core Use Cases
- Simulating heart valves and stents
- Testing across diverse anatomical populations
- Brain-aneurysm devices (in development)
Market & Clients
Key Customers
Structural-heart and neurovascular device makers.
Geographic Presence
How adsilico competes
Competitive Advantages
- Virtual populations generated from real clinical images
- Combination of generative AI and physics-based simulation
- Academic roots in Leeds
How adsilico grows
Growth Strategy
Extend models from the heart to cerebral vessels and grow from 14 to 34 people.
Distribution Model
Direct projects with medical-device manufacturers.
Moat (Defensibility)
Anatomical models, simulation pipelines and validation cases with manufacturers.
Regulatory Context
Validation of in silico models, medical-device evidence requirements and clinical-data governance.
Key Risks
- Weak correlation with real clinical outcomes
- Slow regulatory adoption
- Long sales cycles
Strategic Insights
- In silico trials can move part of testing upstream, before clinical studies.
- Diverse virtual populations can surface risks that small clinical samples miss.
Funding & Investors
Funding Rounds
- 2026 - Series A: £10M
Lead: PXN Ventures
Key Investors
Founding Team
Founders
Key Executives
- Anthony Holmes - Chief Product Officer
- Beckie Bown - CFO
Key Metrics
Lessons from adsilico
- In medtech, simulation creates value only if regulators accept its evidence.
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Read AnalysisSources
- adsilico raises £10M to test medical devices on AI-generated virtual patients — Dealroom
- Yorkshire firm using AI to expand medical device testing raises £10m — The Yorkshire Post
- adsilico — sito ufficiale — adsilico