BGF completes £1.6m investment of Scottish firm Aiber
Investor BGF has completed a £1.6 million investment in Aiber, a Scottish medtech firm, headquartered in Inverness. This completes a £2 million fundraising round, with existing investors Scottish Enterprise and Equity Gap also participating.
Aiber, the trading name of MIME Technologies, is a proprietary first aid software product with onboard kit, designed to support medical emergencies in environments remote from professional medical care.
The technology was developed with input from two airlines and is suitable for use on commercial airlines, business jets and onboard vessels. Providing an end-to-end connection with medical services, it is specifically designed for use by non-medical professionals like cabin crew, allowing for more informed decisions about a range of medical events from burns and allergic reactions to potential heart complaints.
The product will initially be rolled out in the aviation and maritime sectors, where several high-profile direct sales and channel partner trials are underway in Europe and the US. With one diversion costing an airline anything from £25,000 to £500,000, improving medical outcomes in the sky alone has positive implications for both passenger wellbeing, safety, and overall efficiency.
This new funding will help the company, which was originally spun out from the University of Aberdeen, and has offices in Inverness and Edinburgh, further roll out its product to customers in the aviation and maritime sectors.
Aiber’s potential and ability to align and support existing first aid training was highlighted when the company participated in the ATI Boeing Accelerator Programme in 2021.
As well as providing direct investment, BGF’s Talent Network, the UK’s largest pool of non-executive directors, has introduced Tony Davis to the company. An aviation sector expert and former CEO of bmibaby and Tiger Airways, Davis will join as a non-executive director.
Anne Roberts, co-founder and chief executive of Aiber, said: “As we continue to scale Aiber and its affordable one-touch technology, this investment will allow us to accelerate the roll out of our potentially life-saving solution to more customers in our target sectors. Whether in the air or at sea, a medical event in these situations can be incredibly stressful and isolating for those tasked with responding, and we are confident Aiber can reduce the burden and improve passenger health outcomes.”
Keith Barclay, investor at BGF, added: “We are pleased to complete this investment at an exciting moment of growth for Aiber. The company’s pioneering medtech software product has a significant addressable market, and we look forward to supporting their push into new areas. It has also been hugely positive to introduce Tony Davis to the company as part of our investment process to support with the growth journey.”