VeinTech Pty Ltd 

Felix – Simplified Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Access 

Felix is VeinTech’s handheld ultrasound platform for vascular access, designed specifically for the generalist clinicians who perform the majority of peripheral IV insertions.

Unlike conventional diagnostic ultrasound, Felix is purpose-built around the information required to make a vascular-access decision. Rather than asking the user to interpret a conventional ultrasound image, Felix simplifies the procedure into four steps:

FIND – Real-time vessel visualisation to identify veins that may not be visible or palpable.

ASSESS – Provides key vessel information including depth, diameter, flow and pathway.

SELECT – Helps the clinician identify a more appropriate vein and insertion site, including forearm sites associated with longer-dwell and premium PIVCs.

GUIDE – Supports alignment and insertion into the selected vessel by providing real-time location and depth information.

The platform is designed to address the major barriers that have prevented conventional ultrasound from becoming routine for peripheral IV insertion:

• Training burden: conventional ultrasound can require many hours of training, while Felix has been used after approximately 15–30 minutes of device training in VeinTech’s feasibility study.
• Availability: Felix is designed as a compact bedside device rather than a shared ultrasound cart that may not be available when an IV is required.
• Cost and scalability: the product architecture is designed to support broader deployment across hospital wards rather than concentrating imaging capability within specialist vascular-access teams.

Felix also forms the upstream layer of VeinTech’s broader commercial proposition:

The Whole One Stick

Right vein + right technique + right catheter

Felix supports identification and selection of the right vein and site.
The educators support the right insertion technique.
The strategic catheter partner provides the right catheter for that vessel and clinical need.

This is important commercially because the opportunity is not limited to selling an imaging device. By helping clinicians identify and access appropriate vessels more consistently, Felix has the potential to support increased utilisation of premium and longer-dwell PIVCs.

That end-to-end workflow is what VeinTech is now progressing toward commercial validation through its US program and limited market release.

Key Clinical & Economic Benefits

• Improves first-attempt cannulation success, helping reduce repeated needle sticks, treatment delays and escalation to specialist clinicians.
• Supports better vein, site and device selection, including appropriate placement of premium and longer-dwell PIVCs.
• Expands ultrasound-guided vascular access to generalist nurses, with Felix used after approximately 15–30 minutes of device training in the feasibility study versus the substantially higher training burden of conventional ultrasound.
• Helps reduce avoidable vascular-access complications and premature IV failure by supporting more informed vessel and site selection.
• Addresses a significant hospital cost burden, with published literature reporting approximately US$19,000 in additional hospitalisation costs per PIV complication.
• Supports a scalable commercial model, combining a lower-cost device platform, recurring consumables and the potential to increase utilisation of premium vascular-access products.

Target Customers

Primary initial customer:
Acute-care US hospitals, with generalist nurses performing high volumes of PIVC insertions.

Initial use cases:

• Patients with non-visible or difficult-to-assess veins
• Emergency departments and high-throughput hospital areas
• Oncology/infusion and repeat-access patients
• General wards where specialist vascular-access resources are not immediately available

Long-term opportunity:
Routine image-informed vascular access by the generalist nursing workforce.

The key shift is that Felix is not simply another tool for vascular-access specialists. The investment case relies on taking imaging into the workforce that performs the majority of IV insertions.

Next Generation Platform

Felix v2.0 is focused on making image-guided vascular access easier and more economical to deploy at scale, including:

• Lower COGS and simpler product architecture
• Further usability and workflow improvements
• Higher device density at the bedside
• Potential bundling with premium PIVCs
• Continued algorithm and decision-support improvements

The underlying platform also creates longer-term opportunities in adjacent applications, including paediatric and arterial vascular access.

Current capital remains focused on establishing Felix in peripheral IV access and proving adoption and commercial value.

What the Next 12 Months Prove

From “does it work?” to “what is it worth?”

VeinTech has progressively demonstrated:

• Find – accurately localise the vessel
• Assess – identify useful non-visible and non-palpable veins
• Select – shift clinicians toward better veins and sites
• Guide – translate imaging information into successful needle placement

The next evidence program addresses:

• Educate – standardise technique and catheter selection
  
• Cannulation – consistently complete the catheter insertion
  
• Manage – validate the full workflow and device selection
  
• Economics – quantify habitual use and premium-PIVC pull-through

This is the transition from technical validation to commercial validation.

• Pre-seed Round: $0.3M (2021)
• Seed Round: $1M (2022)
• Growth Round: $3.1M (2025 - 2026) 

Notable Investors: 

• Australian and US Government grants (non-dilutive)
• Brisbane and Perth Angels
• Universities and medical research institutes
• Strategic US MedTech multinational partner