Impli secures £1.4M NIHR grant to trial its BEAM hormone-monitoring biosensor
What's the deal? ImpliDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a deep-tech startup spun out of Imperial College LondonDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, has secured £1.4 million from the National Institute for Health and Care ResearchDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (NIHR) to push its BEAM biosensor through first-in-human clinical trials. The device is a microneedle patch worn on the upper arm that continuously tracks three key reproductive hormones — estradiol, LH, and progesterone — and streams data wirelessly to a smartphone, where AI converts the signals into real-time trends.
The grant funds a 30-month programme run with Imperial College Healthcare NHS TrustDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, King's College London, and patient network Fertility EuropeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. It will take BEAM from prototype to a 25-person clinical study, with an NHS adoption pathway already in scope.
Why now? IVF remains punishing for patients: up to ten clinic visits per cycle, repeated blood draws, and treatment decisions based on hormone snapshots that are already a day or two stale. One in six people worldwide is affected by infertility, yet the monitoring infrastructure behind fertility treatment has barely changed in decades.
Impli says BEAM could cut clinic visits from ten to as few as two, enabling personalised, real-time protocol adjustments. "We are not just building a device, we are building the evidence base to show that continuous hormone monitoring is possible, clinically meaningful, and ready for the real world," said founder and chief executive officer Anna Luisa Schaffgotsch.
What could go wrong? The trial involves just 25 participants — a tiny cohort that can demonstrate safety and feasibility but not definitive clinical impact. Microneedle biosensors still face hurdles around accuracy, biocompatibility, and regulatory clearance at scale. And moving from a wearable patch to a commercially viable, mass-produced medical device is a long, expensive road that £1.4 million alone won't cover.
The signal: Impli is classified as an early-growth-stage company on Dealroom, and the fact that its first major injection of capital comes from a government and non-profit funder rather than venture capital underscores how public bodies are stepping in to de-risk deep-tech hardware plays — particularly in femtech, where clinical validation timelines can deter early private investors. If the trial delivers clean data, the NIHR backing and built-in NHS adoption pathway could make Impli a compelling proposition for the venture round it will inevitably need to commercialise.
Read more: Bioalps
