Scandinavian Real Heart

"That Realheart is able to supplement its funding with additional public funds is a sign of the strong interest of society in making our artificial heart a reality and bringing it to market. It is a product that could give many people around the world a new lease on life," said Realheart CEO Ina Laura Perkins.

The current support is given to companies to contribute to digitalization, green transition, internationalization, and verification. The support for digitalization refers to Realheart, in collaboration with Linköping University and the University of Bath, to use new digital methods to understand the blood flow in artificial hearts in more detail to further reduce the risk of blood-related side effects, and to develop more digital twins of heart failure patients together with German Virtonomy. The project in green transition is about evaluating solutions for the heart's batteries and chargers from an environmental perspective while providing optimal energy supply, while the third project aims to prepare a launch of the heart on an international market. In verification, Realheart intends to confirm the production technology for a sub-component that was previously performed by a supplier to instead ensure in-house production.

Almi alone decides on the verification support, while Almi Företagspartner handles the other three supports on behalf of the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and Region Västmanland, which makes the final decision on support based on Almi's recommendation.

The company has previously been awarded a development grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator of EUR 2.5 million. Earlier in 2023, EIC announced that it intends to invest up to EUR 3.5 million (approx. SEK 39 million) in connection with the new share issue that the company is currently carrying out. EIC is one of Europe's leading financiers of innovative companies that are expected to become global leaders in their markets.