Surrey spin-out completes successful £5 million funding round to advance next-generation X-ray technology into healthcare

A new type of X-ray technology developed at the University of Surrey and being commercialised by spinout Silveray has raised £5 million of scale-up investment to accelerate its expansion into healthcare, marking another major milestone in the journey from fundamental research to real-world impact.

The Silveray team won the 2024 IoP award

Silveray were named Spinout of the Year at the IOP Business Awards in 2024

Silveray, which originated from research at Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute (ATI), has built an ultra-thin, flexible Digital X-ray Film (DXF®) that offers a new approach to radiography. The technology is designed to produce sharp, high-quality images whilst being lighter, cheaper and more comfortable for patients than conventional rigid X-ray detectors.

The investment builds on the company’s growing commercial success in industrial inspection, where the technology is already being used to assess critical infrastructure and components across sectors such as energy, aerospace and advanced manufacturing.

The Series A funding round will support the scale-up of production and expand its use in healthcare. Key applications include more accessible diagnostic imaging, improved patient experience for cancer patients – including during breast cancer screening – and enhanced monitoring during radiotherapy treatment. The technology has the potential to expand the market for imaging, making advanced imaging more portable, affordable and widely available.

Silveray was founded in 2018 by Professor Ravi Silva, Director of the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) at the University of Surrey. Since then, Silveray and the ATI have painstakingly worked on the technology that incorporates high-Z elements (heavy atoms known for their ability to absorb X-rays) into semiconductor polymer materials, creating flexible X-ray detectors that are both sensitive and adaptable to curved surfaces.

Silveray’s vision is to revolutionise X-ray imagery and add colour to this traditionally monochrome image at lower doses in a flexible format. Seeing this research evolve over the last decade into a successful company, attract significant investment and move towards healthcare applications demonstrates the power of academic innovation.

"This latest investment will help to push forward the next phase of growth and bring the benefits of this technology to even more sectors, with the potential to improve healthcare outcomes and make advanced imaging more accessible. Professor Ravi Silva, Distinguished Professor, Director - Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) and Head of NanoElectronics Centre

The investment round was led by PXN Ventures, with co-investment from existing investor Northern Gritstone and support from the GMC Life Sciences Fund and Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. The funding will enable Silveray to expand its team, scale up manufacturing and strengthen commercial partnerships for healthcare and industry.

Silveray is one of a growing number of Surrey spinouts transforming pioneering research into technologies that deliver both commercial success and real-world benefits. The company emerged from the Advanced Technology Institute, which has a long history of translating advances in materials science, photonics and electronics into innovations that address today’s challenges.

The Government has rightly identified innovation, scale-up and national technological capability as central to the UK’s future prosperity. Realising that ambition will depend in no small part on our ability to translate world-class university research into commercial success, industrial strength and tangible public benefit.

“Professor Ravi Silva’s spin-out, Silveray, is an excellent example of that in practice. This latest funding round will help accelerate the Advanced Technology Institute’s flexible X-ray technologies into the healthcare sector, with the potential to improve outcomes for patients while reinforcing the UK’s position at the forefront of high-value innovation. It is another powerful example of purpose-led, translational research from the University of Surrey delivering real-world impact. Professor Stephen Jarvis, President and Vice-Chancellor