Health Check: After raising up to $14m, Emvision is off and running with its Emu stroke detection push

• Emvision secures $12 million in a placement, with up to $2 million to come in a share purchase plan
• Painchek’s Highland Fling reaps trial rewards
• Visionflex cleans up its balance sheet

Emvision Medical Devices (ASX:EMV) has replenished its coffers in a $12 million-plus equity raising, with the funds earmarked to advance its two portable stroke detection tools.

The raising was by way of a placement, with the company aiming to raise up to $2 million via a share purchase plan (SPP). This includes up to $1 million of oversubscriptions.

The raising was priced at $1.94 a share, a 16% discount to last Friday’s frozen share price of $2.32.

Subscribers also receive free attached options on a three-for-four basis, exercisable at $3.40 up to two years from the issue date.

The company will use the funds to advance commercialisation of its lightweight bedside scanner Emu, as well as First Responder. The latter is an even lighter variant for use in ambulances.

The raising was supported by strategic shareholder Keysight Technologies, a US$29 billion, New York-listed testing and measurement outfit.

Keysight initially invested US$10 million ($15.2 million) in February last year and has availed of its “full pro-rata entitlement” in the raising.

Watch for milestones

Emvision expects “major milestones” in the Emu and First Responder programs over the next two years.

“The funds raised allow Emvision to progress our clinical, regulatory and go-to-market activities, while maintaining a strong balance sheet as we advance towards market access and commercialisation,” the company says.

As of June 30 2025, Emvision held cash of $10.45 million.

Emvision also benefits from grant non-dilutive grant funding.

Sources include a $5 million Industry Growth Grant program (for First Responder) and a $3 million Cooperative Research Centres Projects endowment for an Emu study in regional South Australia.

Under the SPP, investors can subscribe for up to $30,000 of shares, also at $1.94 apiece and get the free options.

While the oppies are well out of the money currently, the recent experience of lung imaging tearaway 4D Medical (ASX:4DX) shows how ‘worthless’ paper quickly can become available.

Emvision will dispatch the SPP offer booklet on Monday week, with the offer closing on October 23.

Late last year Emvision released the results of a multi-centre prevalidation study, showing Emu could identify a type of stroke – bleed or clot – with up to 95% accuracy.

The company has started a pivotal (validation) trial to support FDA clearance under the new device pathway.

Trial sites include Mayo Clinic, Mount Sinai, UTHealth and UCLA Health in the US, as well as Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Sydney’s Liverpool Hospital.

With the First Responder, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) has put the device through its paces in regional settings with healthy volunteers.

The company has ethics approval for multiple studies with the RFDS, a Melbourne mobile stroke unit and standard ambulances.

These studies will start in the current half.

Och aye! There’s a wee benefit there

The developer of an eponymous digital pain measurement app, PainChek (ASX:PCK) reports an independently-evauated Scottish pilot program resulted in “outstanding clinical benefits”.

Painchek is leveraging the results to make further inroads into the UK, where its coverage spans 42,000 aged-care beds across more than 1000 homes.

The device is used for non-verbal aged care residents – such as those suffering dementia – and the company is developing a variant for pre-verbal children.

The pilot showed a reduction in falls of up to 40% and a 27% reduction in “dependency and care needs”. Analgesic usage declined by 25% and antipsychotic prescriptions fell by 33%.

With new medical devices, companies need to highlight the economic benefit.

In this case, Painchek says using the device across 23,000 aged care residents – 60% of Scotland’s total aged care beds – would save the system A$134 million.

And you know how careful the Scots are with money.

The Scottish Care Inspectorate undertook the government-funded pilot, which was evaluated independently by Edinburgh Napier University.

One participant, Renaissance Care has rolled Painchek out across all of its beds and reports an “immense benefit”.

Renaissance Care is Painchek’s largest client, with 18 care homes and 750 residents.

Meanwhile, Painchek has successfully completed an integration trial at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

This involved integrating Painchek with the data platform of the US-based Intersystems, which provides services such as electronic health records.

The Scottish government now is considering whether to deploy Painchek across the country-within-a-country’s 38,000 aged care beds.

Visionflex turns debt into shares

Visionflex (ASX:VFX) has shored up its balance sheet, with two cornerstone investors swapping $3.25 million of debt into equity on favourable terms to the company.

Formerly known as 1^st Group, Visionflex provides the requisite software and hardware such as examination cameras, for telehealth consults in regional areas.

While the hardware is on site – typically at a community health centre – the clinicians can gauge remotely bodily functions such as blood pressure and pulse rates, or manage wounds.

The funding arrangement sees cornerstone investors John Plummer and Adcock Private Equity converting $3.25 million of debt into equity.

They’re chipping at 0.4 cents per share – double the prevailing 0.2 cents at the time of the agreement.

This leaves the company debt free, although there’s still $1 million from the Adcock facility that can be drawn down if needs be.

Dorsavi confirms its AI potential

Visionflex describes itself as the “best-kept secret in Australian healthcare”.

The same could apply to Dorsavi (ASX:DVL) but it’s having a moment with its shares soaring 350% year to date.

Dorsavi specialises provides biomedical sensors to measure human movement.

Uses include in occupational health and sport.

Dorsavi in June secured an exclusive global licence to resistive random-access memory (RRAM) tech. Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University developed this know-how.

RRAM enables refinements such as video-based AI platforms, and “additional complementary innovations”.

RRAM ties in with Dorsavi developing a new platform, Reflex, for “next generation robotics and human-machine interfaces.”

Dorsavi today said engineering validation of its RRAM-powered Reflex platform confirmed its potential to “deliver biological-grade reflexes at unprecedented speed and energy efficiency”.

The company will apply the learnings to its next-gen robotics and biomedical applications.

In mid-August Dorsavi raised $5 million to further its move into robotics technology. This was by way of a placement to high-net-worth individuals.

Dorsavi’s customers include Crown Resorts, BHP, Boeing, Toyota, the London Underground and Coles and Woolworths.

The company’s sports tool Viperform has been used by several of the major acronyms, including the NBA, NFL and NHL in the US and the AFL here.

At Stockhead, we tell it as it is. While Emvision and Painchek are Stockhead clients, the companies did not sponsor this article.