Existing shareholders, including IP Group and Finance Wales, have supplied additional capital to Cardiff spinout Alesi Surgical.

Alesi Surgical, a medical device spinout of Cardiff University, has raised £5.2m ($6.8m) in a round featuring commercialisation firm IP Group.

Welsh government-own investment firm Finance Wales as well as VC firms Panakes Partners and Earlybird also took part in the round.

Founded in 2009, Alesi Surgical – formerly known as Asalus Medical Instruments – commercialises inventions developed in Welsh Institute for Minimal Access Therapy (Wimat).

Alesi specialises in keyhole surgical technology. Its lead product, Ultravision, uses electrostatic technology to eliminate surgical smoke during operations.

Wimat is situated on a site shared by Cardiff University’s School of Medicine and University Hospital of Wales.

The funding will be used to market Alesi and Ultravision in the US and other key markets, while further developing the Ultravision technology.

Finance Wales has now made seven investments into Alesi, including a £2.1m funding round in 2015. The total size of its commitment has not been disclosed.