Almi Invest invests in Health tech company UTIlizer.

Almi Invest invests 3 MSEK in the HealthTech company UTIlizer. The investment is made through a new share issue and will be used, among other things, to establish a commercial production process.

The investment is made together with a number of business angels and Propel Capital (STING) through a new share issue. The capital raised will be used to establish a commercial production process for the test strips, conduct a clinical study for CE marking, and intensify business development efforts to reach the market. To take these steps, the team will be expanded with a Production Manager who will oversee the scaled production and regulatory issues, as well as a Marketing and Business Development professional.

UTIlizer is a spin-off company from KTH Royal Institute of Technology that has developed a simple and fast diagnostic test for urinary tract infections by enabling the identification of bacteria and their concentration during the infection, allowing doctors to quickly make decisions about the appropriate treatment.

UTIlizer's products have the potential to provide significantly faster, cheaper, and more accurate diagnosis of suspected bacterial infections, such as urinary tract infections, by enabling sample culturing at healthcare centers and eventually at home. There is a great need for this worldwide, and the product is scalable, so we see tremendous potential in the company," says Gustav Notander, Investment Manager at Almi Invest.
UTIlizer has miniaturized cultivation-based bacterial detection (the gold standard for UTI diagnosis) into a dipstick format. The test can detect and quantify bacteria within the clinically relevant range, without expensive laboratory instruments, and can be read using a mobile phone camera. The major advantage of this diagnostic test is that it enables an untrained operator to detect urinary tract infections within the clinically relevant range.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common bacterial infections in women. More than half of all women experience a UTI at least once in their lifetime. Current tests are performed at a limited number of laboratories, causing long waiting times, which often result in UTI diagnoses based solely on symptoms, leading to suboptimal treatment and unnecessary antibiotic use.

"Together with our investors, we look forward to commercializing a point-of-care and clinically accurate UTI test, thereby contributing to appropriate antibiotic use. The company's expertise in life science, combined with a broad network and entrepreneurial spirit, provides a fantastic foundation for the company. Our first product has the potential to improve UTI management, and it is just the beginning of a range of applications," says Sofia Bertling, CEO of UTIlizer.