WEISS spin out Odin Vision acquired by Olympus

We are delighted to announce that Odin Vision, a company that spun out from WEISS in 2019, has signed an agreement to be acquired by Olympus Corporation (Olympus) for up to £66 million. The deal will see Olympus acquire Odin’s entire portfolio of AI solutions, enabling Odin’s technology to reach millions of new patients worldwide.

Commenting, Peter Mountney, CEO of Odin Vision and Honorary Associate Professor at UCL Computer Science, said: “I'm incredibly proud of the team. We started with a university research project at UCL and transformed it into a commercial healthcare technology that will help millions around the world in the fight against cancer.”

Odin Vision began with the research of Patrick Brandão, Professor Dan Stoyanov and Professor Laurence Lovat, based at the UCL Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences. Their pioneering work developed polyp detection systems which assisted doctors in the detection of colorectal cancer. With the support of UCLB, UCL’s commercialisation company, their research was then spun out and led to the founding of Odin Vision.

Prof Dan Stoyanov, Director of WEISS, said: “Odin Vision’s story is a perfect example of WEISS’s maxim to translate pioneering UCL engineering research into clinical practice. By using AI to help clinicians more effectively detect, diagnose and treat disease during endoscopic procedures, we hope to help patients. I’m humbled to have been part of the founding team and excited to see the continued progress and achievements at Odin Vision and the opportunity to impact patient care on a worldwide scale by being part of Olympus.”

UCL sits within a clinical-academic environment, meaning R&D in the lab can be inspired by and progressed with the support of a real-world outstanding clinical environment.

Dr Anne Lane, CEO of UCLB, said: “We are incredibly proud to see Odin Vision’s successful exit to Olympus. UCLB has worked with Odin over a number of years to create a real-world impact from the research, through IP support and access to funding, as well as hands-on advice and guidance from the UCLB team. Odin Vision’s success is testament to the hard work that goes on within our commercialisation team supporting spinouts to realise their full potential as they work to tackle society’s biggest challenges.”

You can read more about this story here on UCL News or here on the Olympus website.