The consortium will invest up to £2.6 million in a number of tranches depending on certain milestones being achieved.

Imperial Innovations Group, a venture capital fund backed by Imperial College London (ICL), joins the consortium investing in Acrobot, which is also a spin-out from ICL.

Following the funding, a finance director will be appointed to Acrobot, which is reportedly ready to commercialise two out of the three technologies it has developed.

Graham Brookes, Acrobot’s CEO, comments: ‘We now have the resources necessary to take our exciting developments to market and to further develop key next-generation robotic tools that engage the orthopaedic surgeon and offer reproducibility coupled with improved ease of use.’

Acrobot was founded by robotics professor Brian Davies and orthopaedic surgeon Justin Cobb. It has developed products in computer-assisted planning, surgical navigation and surgeon-controlled robotic surgery.

London Technology Fund is backed by the London Development Agency and the European Regional Development Fund. It specialises in early-stage technology companies and can invest up to £1.5 million from its own resources.