Technology firm Petrra has secured venture capital in a funding round led by investment firm Synergis Technologies. Petrra has developed a medical device known as a ‘PET scanner’, which is able to diagnose heart disease and cancer more quickly and cheaply than existing models.

Technology firm Petrra has secured venture capital in a funding round led by investment firm Synergis Technologies. Petrra has developed a medical device known as a ‘PET scanner’, which is able to diagnose heart disease and cancer more quickly and cheaply than existing models.

Petrra chairman Ian Buckley-Golder tells GrowthBusiness that the company will use the funding to develop strategic relationships with commercial partners, build its management and technology teams and increase its IP portfolio.

Synergis’ interim chief executive Shimi Shah says: ‘The use of PET scanners looks set to achieve rapid growth both in Europe and the US for the use in both oncology and cardiac monitoring, with Bio-Tech Systems estimating that global sales are growing at a current rate of 15 per cent a year worldwide.’

Based in Didcot, Oxfordshire, Petrra is already supported by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. The company made a pre-tax loss of £176,867 for year-end May 2006.