Neuranics to double workforce this year

A semi-conductor firm that spun out from the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh has announced it plans to double its workforce this year.

Neuranics says it will also invest in further research and development of its pioneering magnetic sensing human-machine interaction technology, after raising £6.2 million last month.

The company’s ultra-sensitive, low-power, and scalable sensors detect tiny magnetic signals from the human body, enabling precise tracking of muscle activity for gesture recognition and heart signals - all without skin contact. The ground-breaking magnetic sensing technology offers improved accuracy, reduced power consumption, and the potential for continuous monitoring from anywhere in the world.

Accelerate

Neuranics has said it intends to double its workforce in Scotland from 20 to 40 over the next year to accelerate global growth and the commercial adoption of its Tunnelling Magnetoresistance (TMR) technology.

The expansion follows a successful investment round, led by Blackfinch Ventures and supported by Archangels, Par Equity, the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, raised £6.2m ($8m USD) for the company.

• Neuranics CEO Noel McKenna

With active collaborations across Silicon Valley and with other world-leading Tier-1 semiconductor and XR (Extended Reality) manufacturers, Neuranics is preparing to scale into high-volume applications within the consumer products market with an additional focus on industrial and healthcare applications. As well as growing its team, the company will also use its new investment funds to drive further integration of its TMR technology into emerging and high-tech markets, including XR, wearables, and digital health. 

Neuranics’ award-winning Magnetomyography (MMR) wristband will be launched next January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the world’s biggest trade event for the sector. The company’s MMR technology was honoured at the CES Innovation Awards earlier this year. 

Last year Neuranics secured an £800,000 grant from Scottish Enterprise to support a £2.4 million project aimed at transforming how humans interact with machines through innovative wristband technology. 

Noel McKenna, CEO of Neuranics, said: “Following our successful investment round, we are delighted to announce significant expansion of our team in Glasgow to support our drive for global commercialisation.

“As our company’s growth journey has demonstrated, Scotland is a major player in the semi-conductor industry and a great location for hi-tech start-ups. It’s essential that we continue attracting the skills and talent required to maintain our strong global position and further develop economic opportunities here in Glasgow and across other regions of Scotland.” 

Following our successful investment round, we are delighted to announce significant expansion of our team in Glasgow to support our drive for global commercialisation.

Noel McKenna, CEO of Neuranics

Neuranics was supported by the corporate team at international law firm CMS on the legal aspects of its recent £6.2m investment round and an earlier £1.9m pre-seed round completed in 2023.

Jack Letson, head of corporate at CMS Scotland said: “It’s been inspiring and energising to see the ongoing growth of Neuranics, an innovative company which we’ve been honoured to support on two successful investment rounds. The company’s success underlines Scotland’s position as a global leader in ground-breaking semi-conductor technology.”

The anchor institution for GRID, the University of Glasgow is a world top 100 University (THE, QS) and the Times and Sunday Times Good University of the Year 2022, and a member of the prestigious Russell Group of leading UK Universities with an average annual research income since 2020-21 of £203m. 

In 2024, the University’s top six spin-out companies raised investment of more than £60 million, creating 250 jobs across a range of commercial and spin-out activity, and awarded more than £600,000 to 23 projects with commercial or spin-out potential as part of major funding drives in Medtech and the Arts and Humanities.