YORK based medical diagnostic company Abingdon Health has received a £3 million investment in exchange for a stake in the business.

Sand Hutton based Abingdon Health opened a £3 million investment round, led by Imperial Innovations, in a bid to raise funds to accelerates its plans to develop and launch a series of rapid tests for the blood disease market.

Imperial Innovations, an investor in technology business, committed £2.5m million to the round, and now holds a 33.7 per cent stake in Abingdon.

The investment follows the commercial launch of the Seralite-FLC device in March this year, the world’s first rapid diagnostic device for bone marrow cancer, which was developed initially through Abingdon Health’s joint venture with the University of Birmingham.

In conjunction with the investment round, Abingdon has also announced the appointment of Chris Yates as chief executive.

Mr Yates con founded Abingdon in 2007 alongside Chris Hand and has been a non-executive director of Abingdon for the past three years.

He was previously chief financial officer of AIM-listed Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings, and Cozart, also listed on AIM.

Mr Hand, who was appointed chairman of Abingdon in April 2015 and will continue to play an instrumental role in company’s expansion, said: "We are delighted by the support of Imperial Innovations and other existing investors in the £3 million fundraising.

"This investment will allow the company to accelerate the development and launch of its pipeline of rapid testing products focused on haematology oncology.

"In addition, I am very pleased to welcome Chris Yates as chief executive of Abingdon to lead the executive team through the next phases of growth of the company."

Mr Yates said: “It is an exciting time to be joining Abingdon following the recent launch of the Seralite® ?FLC rapid test.

"I am looking forward to working with Chris and the team to drive the company forward."

Since Since Abingdon Health’s formation the company has completed a series of acquisition and licensing transactions to bring together intellectual property, diagnostic platforms, manufacturing and created a sales and marketing structure.

Imperial Innovations' Dr Jonathan Tobin said: "Abingdon Health has made great progress in the development of its rapid diagnostic tests as demonstrated by the recent commercial launch of the Seralite-FLC device, which is now being marketed across the UK and Europe.

"We are therefore delighted to lead this funding round, which will enable the company to accelerate the development and launch of a series of rapid immunoassay tests focused on the haematology oncology market."