What You Should Know
- New Zealand medical technology startup Wellumio has finalized its oversubscribed $9.75M pre-Series A funding round, adding international venture capital from Australia (Bioshore Ventures) and the United States (Jumpspace Ventures).
- Led by Nuance Connected Capital, with continued participation from Icehouse Ventures, NZGCP Aspire Seed Fund, Pacific Channel, Booster, Cure Kids Ventures, Enterprise Angels, Flying Kiwi, the NZ Active Investor Plus program, and Snowball Effect.
- Wellumio’s flagship device, Axana®, weighs just 50kg and requires no contrast agents, cryogenics, helium, or RF-shielded rooms, allowing point-of-care deployment directly at the emergency room bedside.
- Powered by proprietary Pulsed Gradient Free Mapping (PGFM) technology (granted a U.S. patent in December 2025), which has demonstrated clinical parity with conventional high-field MRI across key acute stroke biomarkers.
Pulsed Gradient Free Mapping (PGFM) at Scale
At the core of Wellumio’s Axana® system is its proprietary Pulsed Gradient Free Mapping (PGFM) method—a patented approach to ultra-low-field magnetic resonance designed specifically for point-of-care triage:
- Infrastructure-Free Deployment: Operating on standard battery power at 50kg, Axana® eliminates the need for expensive RF shielding, liquid helium cooling, or contrast media injections.
- Patented PGFM Mapping: Uses fixed permanent magnet arrays combined with radiofrequency sequence mapping to measure tissue perfusion and water diffusion changes without heavy gradient coils.
- Clinical Parity with High-Field MRI: Preclinical and first-in-human feasibility trials demonstrate agreement with conventional 1.5T/3T MRI systems across primary stroke biomarkers.
- AI-Enhanced Signal Processing: Onboard machine learning models synthesize raw RF data signals to instantly differentiate ischemic tissue damage and brain bleeds, generating clear clinical guidance for ED physicians.
“Every minute counts in stroke care, yet only a small proportion of patients receive treatment within the ‘golden hour’… Our portable, AI-enhanced MRI-based brain imaging technology is designed to rapidly detect acute stroke at the point of care, helping clinicians make faster treatment decisions when time matters most,” stated Dr. Shieak Tzeng, Co-founder and CEO of Wellumio.
As Wellumio expands its clinical evaluation sites across Australia, the US, and New Zealand, it delivers the exact hardware and software infrastructure required to transform acute emergency medicine from a centralized, high-latency bottleneck into an automated, auditable, and secure system of instant point-of-care diagnosis.
