Axial3D — a UK-based medical 3-D printing company that specialises in the use of patient-specific medical models to improve surgical intervention — has announced the “closing of a $3 million funding round” that was led by London-based Imprimatur Capital Fund Management.

The round was also supported by a US investment consortium comprising a number of ‘surgical angel investors’, and by Axial3D’s previous institutional investors — Techstart Ventures, Clarendon Fund Managers and Innovation Ulster Ltd.

The investment will support Axial3D’s (www.axial3d.com) rapid growth plans for the USA, where it will open an office following recent ‘customer wins’.

The company says it is creating jobs in the expanding US market — and at its base in Belfast — to support planned ‘large growth’ and ensure ‘continuous innovation’, adding that there is a significant focus on expanding its machine learning team, which builds automated algorithms that make access to medical 3-D printing for hospitals “particularly easy”.

Axial3D CEO Daniel Crawford said: “The closure of this investment round marks an important milestone for our company.

It will accelerate our growth within our expanding markets and enable us to bring our 3-D printing solution to more health-care organisations, helping them to drive down costs, improve compliance and — ultimately — enhance patient care.

“Continuous innovation is crucial to bringing the best solutions to market and keeping up with customer demand.

“Following our recent collaborations with Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare and University Hospital Basel, we will focus further on the North American and European markets.

“This includes opening an office in the USA and recruiting more talent into our team, particularly to grow our machine learning capability.

"This will enable us to continue to innovate and find new ways to bring 3-D printing on demand to the entire health-care sector.”