Breakthrough Victoria injects $5 million into Neo-Bionica

Melbourne-based Neo-Bionica has announced a $5 million investment from Breakthrough Victoria.

Founded in 2021 as a joint venture between the Bionics Institute and the University of Melbourne, Neo-Bionica specialises in manufacturing and commercialising medtech.

Neo-Bionica collaborates with both domestic and international innovators, focusing on engineering, bioelectronics, and neurotechnology to develop advanced medical devices.

Operating out of St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, the company has two workshops that are utilised for both implantable and wearable tech.

Neo-Bionica offers services such as medical device prototype development, clinical trials, and initial low-volume manufacturing.

“Neo-Bionica is unique in Australia – it significantly speeds up the time it takes to develop and trial a medical device, which means people will benefit from the technology earlier,” Grant Dooley, CEO of Breakthrough Victoria, said in a statement.

“By supporting startups to develop, trial and manufacture medical technology in Victoria, we can ensure these life-saving technologies benefit and prioritise local patients, increase jobs and investments in the state.”

The fresh cash injection will go towards expanding Neo-Bionica’s manufacturing capability, facilities and market presence. According to Breakthrough Victoria, the commercial growth of Neo-Bionica will create up to 45 new jobs.

There are also plans to expand the company’s influence beyond Australian shores.

“Breakthrough Victoria’s investment will enable us to accelerate our domestic and global expansion plans,” Ludovic Labat, CEO of Neo-Bionica said.

“We are very proud to be an Australian company supporting local medtech innovators and exporting Australian medtech expertise to the world.”

Tim Pallas, Victoria’s Minister for Economic Growth, highlighted the investment’s potential to enhance the state’s medtech sector.

“Our investment is supporting medtech startups to get their innovative ideas and technology into clinical trials and then into the market, growing our world-class medtech sector and improving people’s lives,” Pallas said.

This news comes just weeks after it was announced that Breakthrough Victoria would be losing $360 million in funding over four years. This came on the heels of increased scrutiny of the fund in recent months. Questions have been raised regarding the transparency of its investment, as well as the discovery that it spent $22 million in 2023 to invest $73.7 million into the Victorian startup ecosystem.

Since launching in 2020 Breakthrough Victoria has invested over $330 million into companies such as World View, RayGen, and Zena Sport.

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