Virilitas raises over £700,000, including Innovate UK grant, to accelerate development of its sperm health home testing kit and platform

Virilitas Labs, a tech spinout company from research conducted at the University of East Anglia (UEA) by Prof Simone Immler and Dr Daniel Marcu, based at Norwich Research Park, has been awarded a prestigious Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst grant. The grant of £465,000 which was matched with £251,000 of funding raised from private investors, totalling £716,000, will enable it to accelerate the final development of its rapid male fertility test and platform which aims to provide people with a simple method to analyse their sperm health.

The platform uses lateral flow technology to analyse a panel of biomarkers representing fertility and reproductive health from a single semen sample in a rapid, portable and easy-to-use format. The test, and its companion app launched earlier this year, return clear, actionable data in around 15 minutes, without the need for a clinic visit.

This grant will help Virilitas to finish the development of the testing device, assess its optimisation and manufacturing, validate the platform’s software integration and AI model and progress the regulatory preparation for a CE-marked in-vitro diagnostic device. It is already working with a kit manufacturer.

Innovate UK’s Biomedical Catalyst grant received 654 applications with just 36 projects securing funding, including Virilitas.

Dr Marcu said: “Men don’t engage with fertility care because there is no clear entry point designed for them. We’re building Virilitas to solve that. The combination of our app, home testing kit and tech platform is designed to take users from confusion to action and ultimately into the right clinical support. We are delighted to receive this grant as it is a very competitive process and it validates the scientific and commercial case for our platform. Innovate UK has supported us through a variety of programmes over the years including a recent Medtech Business Incubation trip to Singapore to meet potential customers and investors. This is great news and will enable us to progress further our kit and platform.”

Earlier this year, Virilitas launched an app to address the lack of information and support available for male reproductive health. Many men do not engage with fertility care early enough, often due to stigma, lack of awareness and the absence of clear, accessible entry points into the system. Coupled with a marked decline in male fertility, it became apparent to Dr Marcu and Prof Immler that this sector of men’s health was dramatically underserved.

The Virilitas app provides users with personalised guidance based on their lifestyle and health behaviours, alongside instant support through a medically-informed AI assistant trained on reproductive health guidelines. Users can access evidence-based content to better understand their reproductive health and engage with a community hub designed to connect individuals facing similar challenges, while maintaining privacy to help overcome stigma and encourage earlier engagement with care. The platform also enables users to book consultations with fertility specialists directly when they are ready to take that next step. A patent has been filed for the platform and method of testing.

Prof Immler said, “Male fertility and reproductive health have been ill-served till now. One in six couples are affected by fertility issues of which approximately 50% can be assigned to the male partner. In recent years, on average, sperm count has halved due to the impacts of climate change, increased stress, chemical additives in food, obesity and unhealthy diets.

“Our proposition will hopefully start some serious dialogue on this issue and begin to provide people confronting infertility issues with clear guidance and measures of reproductive health that will help, support and signpost them towards resources that can make a difference. We are looking forward to finishing off the development work on our platform and testing kit and then scaling up with a manufacturer to make access to them as wide as possible. We are in active discussions with distributors in the UK and internationally to make our kit affordable and to enable customers to access a male fertility assessment without the need for a clinical referral.”

Virilitas is working in partnership with Abingdon Health who manufacture the lateral flow components and Bourn Hall Fertility Clinic and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital who have been providing clinical samples for validation.

Innovate UK also supported Virilitas through the iCURe market discovery programme and global business innovation programme in Singapore.

Virilitas has continued to receive strong backing from existing angel investors through Anglia Capital Group, who first invested in November 2025. Their continued support reflects the sustained confidence in the company’s growth trajectory, progress and long-term potential. In addition, the company has welcomed several new angel investors from the Middle East, further broadening its investor base and international reach.

Virilitas has also benefited from being part of Anglia Innovation Partnership’s (the campus management company for Norwich Research Park) incubator programme and the funding access it provided enabled the company to build the current version of its app.

Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership, said, “Maximising the impact of the publicly-funded research carried out across Norwich Research Park is one of our core objectives. That’s why we support start-up companies like Virilitas who have a great idea to address a serious issue and who need help to get their proposition to markets. We have worked closely with Simone and Daniel for a number of years, supporting them as part of our campus incubation programme and with pre-seed funding, so it’s fantastic to see them advancing so quickly towards the full launch of their testing kit and platform. We look forward to the company going from strength-to-strength and will continue to support them as they grow their business and become another success story from Norwich Research Park.”