Most diagnostic startups pick one buyer and stay there. 52North built a blood test for cancer patients, then let NATO fund a second product off the same core platform, for radiation sickness triage instead.

The original product, Neutrocheck, is a fingerprick test that flags cancer patients at risk of neutropenic sepsis, a fast-moving infection that can turn fatal within hours after chemo. A real problem, but a narrow one.

NATO’s DIANA accelerator picked 52North from around 3,000 applicants worldwide back in 2024, then spent six months in Copenhagen stress testing the underlying sensor tech, called Aster, for a completely different scenario.

That work became ARC, a product built to triage radiation exposure and get treatment to patients fast. NATO backed it with another 300,000 euros on top of what it had already committed.

I find this more convincing than most funding news. A defence accelerator does not get won over by a good pitch deck.

The tech has to survive conditions a hospital procurement team never tests for.

This is anecdotal, but I cannot think of another UK health tech spinout that took a hospital-facing product and got defence money for a second use case off the same core platform.

I noticed 52North sitting on this year’s HLTH Europe exhibitor list, which is actually what put them on my radar.

Makes me wonder how many diagnostic platforms out there are sitting on a second product nobody has funded yet.

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