Hearing Diagnostics Limited, an Edinburgh medical-device company, entered compulsory liquidation on December 3, 2025, roughly three years after raising £1.1 million in November 2022 in what would become its final funding round. The startup had pulled in £1.8 million total from Archangels and Scottish Enterprise, yet attempts to sell its intellectual property through early 2026 appear to have stalled without a confirmed buyer as of September 26, 2026.
The collapse marks another setback for the Scottish healthtech scene and highlights how promising clinical data doesn't always translate into commercial survival, even in a market with clear need.
A Three-Minute Alternative to Standard Tests
At its core, Hearing Diagnostics pitched a speed advantage. The company's AUDIMETROID device relied on a spatial-listening approach that asked patients to turn their heads toward sounds coming from multiple directions at random intervals. The test wrapped up in roughly three minutes, compared with the 25 to 30 minutes typical for conventional audiometry. Company materials claimed 99.4% sensitivity and 95% specificity in detecting hearing loss.
Dr. Claudia Freigang, the CEO and an auditory neuroscientist by training, co-founded the venture with Dr. Colin Horne, the chief technology officer. Their system incorporated head-tracking sensors meant to reduce false negatives. Rather than target audiologists directly, Hearing Diagnostics focused on hearing-aid retailers, optical chains moving into audiology services, and community health settings where specialist equipment might be scarce or impractical.
The strategy reflected a bet that hearing screening could expand beyond traditional clinics, much as vision testing had proliferated in retail optometry.
Early Capital and Optimism
Archangels led a £715,000 pre-seed round in October 2020, with Equity Gap joining. At the announcement, the startup outlined plans to run trials with universities and hearing-aid retailers ahead of a 2021 market launch.
By November 2022, Hearing Diagnostics had grown to five employees and closed a £1.1 million seed round. Archangels again led, this time with Scottish Enterprise's Scottish Co-Investment Fund participating. The fresh capital was earmarked for UK and US commercialization efforts and team expansion. "Our mission is to make reliable hearing testing accessible outside of specialist clinics," Freigang said at the time. Niki McKenzie, then an investor director at Archangels, described the technology as "truly ground-breaking and disruptive."
That language reflected the optimism around MedTech tools promising to democratize diagnostics, a theme that has animated venture investors for years with decidedly mixed results.
Clinical Validation Efforts
A feasibility study summary published by the UK Health Research Authority in 2023 described a trial at NHS Ayrshire & Arran comparing AUDIMETROID against pure-tone audiometry across 1,000 first-time audiology referrals. The company also recruited volunteers in Edinburgh and Glasgow in early 2022 to trial the system, according to Optometry Today.
Hearing Diagnostics saw opportunity in the August 2022 FDA rule permitting over-the-counter hearing-aid sales in the United States, a regulatory shift that lowered barriers for consumers and, theoretically, created demand for accessible screening tools. The company filed a European patent application for its "Hearing test system," listing Horne and Freigang as inventors; publication EP4622304 appeared in 2024, with an A3 version published December 17, 2025.
But clinical validation and regulatory tailwinds don't guarantee distribution deals or revenue traction.
Trouble Behind the Scenes
Companies House records hint at internal turbulence. Director changes rippled through 2024, with David Ovens and Martin James Gossling appointed in July and August, respectively, while McKenzie and Philip Harris departed.
By late 2025, the company had entered a formal asset-sale process. Metis Partners marketed the intellectual property with an expression-of-interest deadline set for October 30, 2025. When that effort apparently stalled, SIA Group and Gordon Brothers took over, circulating a teaser document that reiterated the 99% sensitivity claims and set a new deadline for February 2, 2026.
The company entered compulsory liquidation on December 3, 2025. Insolvency practitioners Callum Angus Carmichael of FRP Advisory in Edinburgh and Alexander Kinninmonth were appointed to oversee the process. No public record confirms a buyer for the assets as of September 26, 2026, and the entity remains in insolvency proceedings.
A Crowded Field
Hearing Diagnostics was hardly alone in chasing smartphone-based or simplified screening tools. HearX Group's hearScreen and SHOEBOX have pursued similar markets, with varying degrees of commercial success. A March 2025 evaluation in JAMA Network Open examined SHOEBOX's app-based audiometry, documenting the inevitable trade-offs between sensitivity and specificity in portable devices. Established players like Natus Medical and Intelligent Hearing Systems continue to dominate clinical and infant-screening segments, benefiting from entrenched relationships and regulatory credentials.
WHO data from 2021 estimated that more than 1.5 billion people worldwide experience hearing loss, imposing roughly $980 billion in annual costs when left unaddressed. The scale of the problem suggested ample room for innovation.
Yet Hearing Diagnostics struggled to convert clinical performance claims into revenue momentum, a fate that has befallen countless medical-device startups with compelling science but insufficient market pull. Three years after raising its seed round, the company's IP is effectively orphaned, a reminder that even sophisticated technology needs customers willing to integrate it into their workflows and pay for it at scale.
The liquidation leaves Archangels and Scottish Enterprise nursing losses and adds to a lengthening list of UK healthtech ventures that launched with fanfare but couldn't achieve commercial escape velocity.
