Open Bionics, manufacturer of the Hero Arm and other prosthetic devices, secured a £600,000 loan (approximately $631,000 USD), which it says will be used to open six clinics in the United States as well as others in central Europe. The company’s prostheses are built using 3D scanning and 3D printing.
“We’re really excited to use this funding to supercharge growth in the USA and make it much easier for our patients to access specialist care within their state by visiting their Open Bionics clinic,” said Samantha Payne, Open Bionics cofounder and chief executive (USA).
The intellectual property–backed loan came from British commercial bank NatWest. Accepting intellectual property as collateral on loans supports companies that lack tangible assets.
“It can often be challenging for scale-ups to access growth capital as often they don’t have fixed assets they need to secure lending,” said Louis Spencer, relationship director, NatWest. “This financing solution bridges that gap by enabling scale-ups like Open Bionics to use their intangible assets—such as patents, copyright, and trademarks—to secure lending.
