London medical technology company OSSTEC has raised $8 million to support the planned first use in patients of a 3D-printed partial knee replacement in the United States.
The business, which grew out of research at Imperial College London, plans to use the funding for regulatory work and to train and support surgeons. It is targeting its first procedures with the ASCENT implant in the first half of 2027.
That timetable remains a plan, not an approved launch. OSSTEC says neither ASCENT nor its accompanying CLARITY surgical instruments has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration. Neither is available for sale in the United States.
The round was led by London-based Embryo Ventures, with participation from Neovate Capital, New Wave Ventures, Oxford Technology Innovation Finance and Empirical Ventures. The company has already established US operations this year and says the new funding will help it prepare surgeons at partial knee centres to use the system.
How a partial knee differs
Knee replacement can be considered when joint damage causes severe pain and affects daily life despite other treatment. A total replacement generally replaces the worn surfaces at the end of the thigh bone and the top of the shin bone. In suitable cases, a partial replacement treats only the affected part of the knee.
A partial operation uses a smaller incision, and its early recovery can be faster. It is not appropriate for everyone. The part of the knee that remains can also develop arthritis, potentially leading to further surgery. The choice of procedure depends on the condition of the joint and a discussion between patient and surgical team.
ASCENT is a fixed-bearing partial knee system. In this type of design, a plastic insert is firmly attached to the component on the shin bone, with the component on the thigh bone moving against it. OSSTEC is developing its implant and surgical instruments as a system rather than announcing a procedure already available to patients.
A different way to secure an implant
Some knee implants are secured using bone cement. Cementless implants instead have a surface intended to allow bone to grow on to it and hold the implant in place. This approach already exists in other knee replacements; the proposed OSSTEC device is not the first cementless knee implant.
OSSTEC says its 3D-printed fixation platform is designed to achieve that biological attachment without cement. The technology builds on research into implant fixation and the process by which bone integrates with an implant. The company also wants to develop applications beyond partial knee replacement and is evaluating potential integration with robotic surgery platforms.
Those ambitions should not be confused with evidence of clinical performance. The company has described the planned US operations as first-in-human procedures, and the funding announcement does not establish that ASCENT improves recovery, prevents loosening or reduces the need for repeat surgery.
An earlier observational study of registry data compared cemented and cementless versions of a different partial knee implant. It found fewer revisions for loosening in the cementless group but more revisions associated with fractures around the implant. The study did not test ASCENT, and its results cannot establish how OSSTEC’s device will perform.
From university research to clinical use
OSSTEC was founded in 2021, drawing on founder and chief executive Dr Max Munford’s doctoral research into 3D printing for surgery. It developed with support from university enterprise programmes.
Before the latest round, the company raised £1.2 million in seed funding in 2023 and a further £2.5 million in 2025. The earlier investment supported its initial steps in the US. Those sums are separate from the newly announced $8 million round.
For now, the next milestones are regulatory clearance and the proposed first procedures, rather than an established patient service. The company has not announced a US approval or clinical results for ASCENT. Whether and when the device reaches patients will depend on the regulatory process and the progress of its plans.
Featured image: AI-generated illustration.
