Lumitron already has a contract with the US Department of Energy, alongside General Electric (GE), to develop analysis methods to help manage nuclear waste. It is also working with the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Locally, it has signed a heads of agreement with a large radiology clinic network.
Cancer therapy
Mr Stang, who recently returned to Australia from the company’s headquarters in Irvine, California, said the technology could be used in myriad industries.
In healthcare, he said, it would transform not just imaging but also treatments because its device could image organs or bones down to the cellular level. It recently had a technological breakthrough that the company believes will enable it to offer “flash radiotherapy” – a form of ultra-fast radiotherapy targeting only cancer-affected cells.
In mining, Mr Stang said, the device could be used across a conveyor belt to assay rocks in real time, enabling the industry to drastically lower its carbon footprint and increase its efficiency by only processing rocks that would yield the desired quantities of ores.
“This will be used in physics, chemistry, material science and every aspect of medicine,” Mr Stang said.
“Within a year, we believe [HyperVIEW] will start being used at major research universities and hospitals.
“Flash radiotherapy, subject to regulatory approval, we believe could be ready in less than two years.”
While Mr Stang, who founded $1.3 billion disinfection device company Nanosonics in 2001, was instrumental in establishing Lumitron, he said credit for the technology should go to his co-founder, Chris Barty, the CTO and inventor.
‘100 per cent real’
After claiming to be commercialising the biggest breakthrough in X-ray technology since it was created in the late 1800s, the company is used to having doubters.
Teams of scientists have appeared at its headquarters to assess what it is building. Its investor deck, seen by The Australian Financial Review, includes quotes from the I-MED Radiology CEO, GE Global Research’s head of X-ray source research, the secretary of the US Department of Energy and the DARPA project manager overseeing the work it is contracted to complete.
The deck also clearly outlines its contract wins and takes would-be investors through its development history and commercialisation pathway.
This, Mr Stang said, was to help prove that what the company was building was “100 per cent real”.
“Not only is it real, I can’t see anyone else achieving this in the foreseeable future,” he said.
“This happens with most major disruptions throughout history – if you go back in time to Westinghouse versus Tesla, no one believed you could light the world with electricity.
“When I met with the team in Irvine I said to them ‘look me in the eye and tell me there isn’t still a hill to climb with this technology’ and they said they’ve been conservative.”
Lumitron will make its first pre-submission for regulatory approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in the second half of this calendar year.
The company already has the backing of former Macquarie Group boss Allan Moss and Origin Energy and Ramsay Health Care board member Steven Sargent, who was an executive at GE for more than two decades.
The biggest requirement for funding is to build our commercial activities internationally, and build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.
— Maurice Stang, Lumitron co-founder
When it closed a $US34.7 million funding round in 2019, led by Vickers Venture Partners and with participation from Perennial Value Management, the round was priced at a $US150 million valuation. This latest raise is understood to be at a 50 per cent valuation uplift, taking it to more than $US225 million. The terms, Mr Stang said, were set to reward its early investors ahead of the float.
It has appointed investment bank Jefferies to manage the pre-IPO capital raise in Australia and the US.
“I’d like to see staff benefit from liquidity as we go forward. So, [in three years] we’ll likely be a Nasdaq company with a number of operating divisions, and a market valuation that reflects the disruptive nature of the tech. The IPO will be targeted at post-unicorn status,” Mr Stang said.
“The biggest requirement for funding is to build our commercial activities internationally, and build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.
“[In terms of manufacturing cost] we can favourably compete with conventional top-end CT or MRI machines. Our team was obsessed with delivering this [at a price point] that meant everyone could access it.”
