Edinburgh-based diagnostics specialist Novarum taken over in management buyout

An Edinburgh-based medtech firm that specialises in reading lateral flow tests with a smartphone has been acquired in a management buyout by a group of investors including its own chief executive.

Novarum CEO Neil Polwart says the team has 'some exciting possibilities in the pipeline'. Picture: contributed.

Mobile development firm Novarum DX was co-founded in 2012 in a joint venture by Scottish tech firm Albagaia and BBI Solutions (which became its full owner in 2016) and it has 14 staff centred around the Scottish capital. It has now been acquired by the group including Perthshire-based investment vehicle Innova Partnerships, Novarum CEO Neil Polwart and its past chairman Dennis MacPhail, for an undisclosed sum.

The buyout is being billed as set to enable Novarum, which supports customers across industries including healthcare, aviation, veterinary and pharmaceutical-development, to expand the range and type of tests it supports, as well as providing the opportunity to deliver its technology differently and with alternative business models.

The new owners – NDX Holdings, which also encompasses Orchard Ventures, a strategic investor operating in Scotland – say the strategy builds on Novarum’s extensive intellectual property, including a recently granted US patent, to deliver a mixture of app-development services, “easy to adopt” software-as-a-service solutions, and modular software capabilities to support scalability.

"Novarum has the ability to provide entire solutions for diagnostic customers, or to form strategic partnerships with others to achieve its vision that anyone, anywhere, anytime, should be able to run a test and understand its result,” they state. Polwart said: “When we first started talking about this digital health solution 12 years ago, that idea seemed like a pipe dream. It is clear Covid has not only rewritten the play book on how diagnostics can work, but has changed the public’s expectations about their role in testing.

"We are excited to announce this [MBO] and are thrilled about the possibilities it presents for the future of the company. The team have some exciting possibilities in the pipeline, and are confident that their technical expertise, and the experience of the investors, across software and healthcare will transform the way we operate. We will continue our close working relationship with BBI to maximise the benefit to both customer bases."

BBI said the sale “will allow Novarum DX to expand its software-based solutions beyond lateral flow and [us] to sharpen our focus on our core diagnostics business”.