Gobia Enterprises invests in Profundus AB (publ)

Profundus, a company that offers diagnostic systems for eye care, raised SEK 8.4 million in a new share issue just before the turn of the year 2020/2021. The new investors include ALMI Invest, GOBIA Enterprises and TKlein. The funds will be used to accelerate the company through a detailed market launch and needs analysis, to develop unique CE-marked products and to create valuable new jobs. The production chain is complete and sales of the system are now being launched to selected customers/partners, who can start to benefit from the new method.

The system, which is now being sold to leading eye researchers, makes it possible to see individual cells and the smallest blood vessels in the retina. The resolution is up to 10 times better than current methods and images a 50 times larger surface area than previously possible. It is therefore possible to detect and identify early changes in many types of eye diseases, such as the “Yellow Spot” and diabetes. With the Profundus system, which provides better and earlier diagnostics of these diseases, many people can receive valuable care in the early phase.

The response has been that it is a new exciting invention that can both be of great benefit to the world and also has great commercial potential.

“It has been great to see the positive response regarding the company’s ability to create value that the company received in the new share issue. An important milestone for Profundus to be able to accelerate and continue to develop in 2021,” says Profundus CEO Åsa Lindström.

“An exciting company that we look forward to following,” say Jan G. Smith and Jan Erik Smith at GOBIA Enterprises.

“Profundus is a company that we believe in very much and that has an interesting future,” say Tommy Klein and Kristoffer Klein at TKlein AB.

A productive collaboration between eye and astronomy research

Profundus was founded as a result of a successful collaboration between four forward-thinking researchers. The first idea came to Jörgen Thaung and Zoran Popovic, both PhD holders from Chalmers, when they were working on eye research at the University of Gothenburg. They saw the need for significantly better eye diagnostics that were at the same time fast and simple enough to be used in the clinic.

In connection with this, they came into contact with a research group at Lund University, which included doctoral student Per Knutsson. They had then started working with the very latest technology to be able to see stars clearly despite the atmospheric disturbances that normally prevent this.

The four researchers were now able to benefit from each other’s research. The eye researchers gained access to unique expertise and the astronomy researchers got a chance to see the technology implemented in the near future. Together, they were able to solve a number of advanced questions, which has resulted in a completely new patented method for better eye diagnostics.

The company has been part of the GU Ventures incubator for a number of years and its chairman is now Elisabeth Gustafsson, business developer at GU Ventures.