£1.45m investment for Beflast’s B-Secur

Existing co-investors Accelerated Digital Ventures and new investors Clarendon Fund Managers, have also participated in the latest investment round which completed in August 2020.

B-Secur has developed a world first software technique that uses an individual’s unique heartbeat pattern, known as electrocardiogram (ECG) in everyday technologies to securely identify, and provide health and wellness insights at the same time. Medical grade ECG recording traditionally happens in the hospital environment using expensive equipment, but B-Secur are embedding this into latest smartwatches, cars and even clothing and are selling to some of the world’s largest technology companies.

In recent months B-Secur has signed significant contracts with international customers. This round of funding will be used to deliver on these contracts which are in their core tech wearables market which encompasses traditional fitness trackers to smartwatches and medical application patches. The company, which has offices within Belfast’s Innovation Centre, Catalyst, employees over 35 scientists and engineers and will look to hire additional staff in Belfast and engineering staff in their customer regions including US and China.

Siggi Saevarsson, Partner, Kernel Capital explained: “The worldwide pandemic is accelerating demand for connected devices that can monitor all aspects of human health and wellbeing. The world class team at B-Secur and their patented technology is uniquely positioned to play a key role in the development of this next generation of smart devices. Kernel Capital is excited to continue our strong support of the company as it continues its growth.

“We are delighted to receive this injection of investment from Kernel and our other investors so we can continue our work with existing customers and advance new customer applications. Despite a difficult backdrop of Covid-19 and economic uncertainty, our Heartkey software is enabling new features in technology and has generated further demand as a direct result. Not only are people increasingly keen to understand their state of health and wellness including conditions such as stress and anxiety, an unfortunate effect of Covid appears to be an increased instance of heart related, and potentially life threatening, conditions such as Arrhythmia. Hospitals are already struggling to cope with demand, so it is our hope that we can enable personal ECG monitoring in everyday devices such as smartwatches.”

Alan Foreman, CEO, B-Secur added: The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI) was designed to help SMEs in Northern Ireland to accelerate their growth. Invest Northern Ireland has committed £15m of funding to this fund which is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you