Bristol-based healthtech startup Siloton has secured £8.4 million from Innovate UK to accelerate development of its handheld retinal imaging system. The commercial contract, delivered through the Contracts for Innovation: Quantum Missions Primer initiative, is expected to shorten development timelines by up to two years. The funding will support clinical trials, hiring, and the introduction of a device designed to move advanced eye imaging out of hospitals and into community and home settings.
Contract Scope and Funding
The £8.4 million award falls under Innovate UK’s Contracts for Innovation: Quantum Missions Primer program, part of UK Research and Innovation. Over two years, Siloton will accelerate the design of both in-clinic and at-home versions of its GiraffeOCT optical coherence tomography device and complete trials on each system. The startup estimates this support could reduce product development by up to two years, helping it cross a critical early stage funding gap.
Technical Approach and Market Need
Optical coherence tomography uses light to create detailed images of the inside of the eye, but conventional OCT equipment is bulky, expensive, and generally confined to hospitals and optometry clinics. Siloton’s GiraffeOCT compresses a tabletop’s worth of fragile components onto a single chip smaller than a £1 coin, creating an easy-to-use, binocular-style system. This design is intended to make diagnosis and monitoring of treatable retinal diseases more affordable and accessible in community and home settings.
Clinical Trials and Job Creation
Siloton will work with Sunderland Specialist Eye Hospital on clinical trials for the in-clinic device during the contract period. The initiative is expected to provide patients across the North East and North Cumbria with access to the technology while development is underway. York Health Economics Consortium will use trial data to refine cost-saving estimates for the NHS, and the project will grow the Siloton team to 16 by August 2028.
NHS Waiting List Pressures
Ophthalmology is the busiest NHS outpatient specialty, with around nine million attendances in England during 2023 and 2024. At the end of July 2026, nearly 623,000 people were awaiting an ophthalmology appointment, representing 8.7% of all NHS waits. By moving imaging into community and home settings, Siloton aims to help relieve this pressure and support earlier diagnosis and treatment.
Strategic Alignment and Future Development
The project supports UK government goals to shift care from hospitals into local communities and to bring quantum sensing-enabled solutions into NHS Trusts by the end of the decade. The contract will allow Siloton to integrate its second-generation BlueJay chip and build the cloud platform that underpins the service. The company also plans to raise further investment to strengthen its cash position and develop its CheetahOCT device, which is designed to measure different retinal layers.
Siloton expects the Innovate UK contract to help the NHS access new technologies more quickly, ensuring patients benefit from innovations as soon as they are deployed rather than years after approval. The funding will support manufacturing and assembly plans in the UK while creating high-skilled jobs in Bristol. If successful, the project could demonstrate a faster route for quantum-enabled medical devices to reach clinical and home care.