InvenireX Raises £2M To Bring Advanced Disease Detection Platform To Market

The funding round was led by DSW Ventures, with participation from XTX Ventures, Cambridge Technology Capital, and biotech-experienced angel investors, alongside grant support from Innovate UK.

Founded in 2023 through Conception X, InvenireX builds on Dr. Dan Todd’s PhD research at Newcastle University. The company was created to tackle a longstanding challenge in molecular detection which has seen little advancement in the past 40 years. Current methods, such as PCR, were repurposed for disease detection but require extensive sample preparation, often losing up to 50% of molecular markers and making early signals nearly invisible.

InvenireX’s platform uses programmable DNA nanostructures (“Nanites”) to capture specific genetic markers within custom microfluidic chips. A proprietary AI-powered reader then identifies and quantifies targets in real time, enabling detection at concentrations beyond the reach of existing methods.

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Pilot testing shows the platform achieves 200-fold greater sensitivity than qPCR and 60-fold improvement over digital PCR, while cutting both testing time and cost in half, with results available in minutes instead of hours or days.

The potential applications are transformative: tumors as small as one millimeter could be detected up to a decade earlier, vaccine manufacturers could verify active ingredient concentrations at production scale and researchers could uncover previously undetectable biological markers.

"Our machine could pick up cancer, HIV or sepsis earlier – any disease with a nucleic acid trace," InvenireX CEO and founder Dan Todd says.

"We're made of DNA – that's the source code. If you can pick up traces of faults and errors in that code, you can detect problems across the board before symptoms appear.

We've built the ultimate needle-in-a-haystack detector – a tool that we can put in the hands of scientists to enable the discoveries of tomorrow.”

Jonathan O’Halloran, founder of molecular diagnostics PCR company QuantuMDx and angel investor in InvenireX, said:

“There are moments in your life that make you tingle. The first one for me was watching Craig Venter announce the first draft of the human genome, then next was hearing about Solexa, then Oxford Nanopore’s DNA sequencing technologies.

Most recently, it was listening to Dan Todd describe InvenireX’s technology. I believe it’s the UK’s next big technology.”

InvenireX recently completed a successful pilot with a diagnostics partner, which has committed to purchasing the first instrument. Additional pilot programs are underway in vaccine manufacturing and infectious disease diagnostics, with the new funding supporting team expansion and the scaling of these initiatives.

About InvenireX

InvenireX is transforming the detection of nucleic acid biomarkers with real-time, ultra-sensitive instrumentation. Leveraging advanced object-detection neural networks, the platform enables scientists to identify molecular markers faster and more accurately, accelerating life-sciences research and unlocking earlier detection of diseases, improved diagnostics and new possibilities in biotechnology and healthcare innovation.