Bug testing firm Albagaia wins new funding
A Scottish firm which has developed the world's fastest test to detect the deadly Legionnaires' disease secures fresh funding.
Albagaia will use some of the £500,000 of new funding for an export drive for its testing kits.
The company's test can detect the Legionella bacteria in 25 minutes compared with up to two weeks in a traditional lab.
The Linlithgow-based firm also plans to develop its water treatment systems.
Legionnaires' is a bacterial disease that causes a lung infection or pneumonia and is transmitted by contaminated water, especially from heating or water supply systems.
Albagaia has developed smartphone software which speeds up the process of reading test results.
The firm said it had received inward investment of £240,000, half from Equity Gap angel group and half from Scottish Enterprise's (SE) Scottish Investment Bank.
That funding package has unlocked a further £250,000 in research grants.
Albagaia chief executive Graham Tyrie said: "This demonstration of faith in Albagaia's future prospects allows us to fund both water treatment and our innovative smartphone reader software which reads test results independently and transmits them to a central database."