Kainos, the Belfast listed information technology company is to acquire 10 per cent of Northern Ireland-based Cirdan Imaging, a company co-founded by Dr Hugh Cormican who also previously helped to establish Andor Technologies.
The Belfast IT company, who listed on the London Stock Exchange last July, will invest £900,000 (€1,.2 million ) in Cirdan which is headquartered in Lisburn with offices in Canada and Australia.
Kernel Capital, through the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Funds, is also investing € 2.6m i in Cirdan .
Cirdan is a privately owned company which is developing software and medical diagnostic hardware.
Brendan Mooney, CEO of Kainos, said today the investment will open doors “for both businesses, creating interesting new growth opportunities.”
One of the Belfast company’s key products is its Evolve portfolio which provides digital technology solutions for the healthcare sector.
Mr Mooney said: “Cirdan has already established a strong customer base and, by working in tandem, we will be able to promote Kainos’ services and products.
The investment boost by Kainos forms part of the latest investment round for Cirdan led by Kernel Capital to raise £3.5 million.
Last year Kernel confirmed it had made a “significant investment” in Cirdan which was established by Hugh Cormican, its CEO and Stephen Dunniece, CTO, in 2010.
The Lisburn company has developed its own high performance camera and image processing technology which it says is helping to “push the boundaries of diagnosis techniques”.
Three years ago Cirdan acquired a part of GE Healthcare’s business – the ULTRA Laboratory Information System (LIS) – which gave the company an established healthcare customer base in the United States, Canada, Australia and the Middle East.
Dr Cormican said the latest investment boost comes at an exciting time for Cirdan as it expands its products into new territories.
“The funding will be used to strengthen our ULTRA LIS offering and grow our customer base. Kainos Evolve is well established in the healthcare industry and we are confident that this investment will open new revenue streams for both businesses.”
