KSC Advisers

The market you choose sets your evidence, your regulatory pathway and your capital decisions.

In medtech, these inflection points arrive together. From startup to scale-up, we have been in your shoes. Now we are in your corner.

How we help

Wherever you decide to build, we can help.

For companies planning a US market entry and companies expanding into the UK and EU. We have run those routes.

We have direct, hands-on experience building, growing and exiting companies in the US. Know now what the US will require: the claims US clinicians, buyers and payers will accept, the evidence those claims need, and the pathway and capital that evidence takes.

You get a US perspective into the room, and a partner who can tell you early what a given pathway will cost in time and capital, before you spend money finding out.

If you are a US company planning for the UK and EU markets, you get access to regulatory strategy and an executable sales model, integrated with your financial plan.

Capabilities

Commercial, regulatory, quality and capital decisions, built as one plan.

Each capability stands on its own. The value is in how they connect. We coordinate our services with, and will refer you to, firms who are experts in regulatory, quality and transaction support. They share our view of an integrated model, so you are covered across the inflection points and milestones that lead to your success.

We start with the patient and their provider, and work back to the science.

  1. Strategy built from the patient and their provider; who approves the device's clinical use, who approves its purchase and who pays for it, and the claims that follow
  2. Market sizing that holds up under investor diligence
  3. The order of market entry across the UK, EU and US
  4. NHS adoption through the Health Innovation Networks
  5. Distribution partners and sales teams in new markets
Who we work with

Founders holding a technical case and a funding clock at the same time.

Founders and chief executives leading medtech companies from startup to scale-up. First-time chief executives. Serial founders on their second or third venture, who know the questions change from one company to the next.

The problem we solve

Regulatory in one lane. Finance in another. Commercial in a third.

Medtech strategies do not fail at inflection points because founders lack good consultants. The strategy fails when good advice arrives in one lane at a time.

Exhibit

These decisions are not independent, and taking them in the wrong order is expensive.

Most medical device funding plans have a structural gap
  1. The science
  2. Evidence
  3. Regulatory
  4. Finance
  5. The raise
  6. The gap
  7. What it costs

Regulatory and capital plans are built without the commercial path. Investors are asked to invest without understanding the cost and the opportunity. This reduces the number of potential investors. The cost is time, lower valuation, earlier dilution and flexibility.

Our system maximises value and shortens the time to funding
  1. The science
  2. Evidence
  3. Assess market
  4. Claims
  5. Evidence
  6. Regulatory
  7. Finance
  8. Raise

We start with who will use the device and work back to the science: the commercial path sets the claims, the claims set the evidence and the evidence sets the regulatory pathway. The capital plan includes milestones and the full market opportunity, and the raise is tied to the first milestone.

The financial story has to be one narrative for the investor, the board and partners. Built from separate lanes, that story is hard to hold together, and the gaps show when the stakes are highest.

Our solution

We turn separate decisions into one coherent picture.

Most plans are built without the commercial path. We help founders build the strategy in the right order.

What you can expect

What changes when the decisions are made together.

A list of services says what we do. This is what it leaves you with.

01

One plan, in the right order.

The science, the market, the pathway and the raise in one plan, starting from the patient and their provider.

EvidenceThree verticals. Two turnarounds. Growth in US, UK and EU markets.
02

Understanding the cost of your pathway.

You know early what a given pathway will cost in time and capital. Faster isn't always better. Find out before you spend the money.

EvidenceAdvisory work from concept to revenue in US, UK and EU markets.
03

A raise sized to the pathway.

The raise is sized to the runway the pathway requires, and timed to its milestones.

EvidenceFive product launches and three exits.
04

One financial story.

One narrative for the investor, the board and partners, where the numbers fund your milestones.

EvidenceAngel and institutional capital raised. Five companies funded as CEO or CFO.
Why KSC Advisers

We have sat where you sit.

Our knowledge and judgement are built on situations like yours: capital raises, exit planning, restructurings, board transitions. We bring that experience to every engagement.

Capital strategies depend on regulatory sequencing, and pathway decisions carry financial consequences. The story told to the board and to investors has to hold up under diligence. These questions are not always visible to the founder in the middle of managing cash, hiring, working with KOLs and much else. They become visible when someone who has been through these moments many times is working alongside you.

About us
Kevin Kelley

Kevin Kelley

Managing Director
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Kevin has spent over two decades operating and advising early-stage companies, as a medtech founder, chief executive and chief financial officer in the US, the UK and the EU. He has raised capital from angel and institutional investors at early and growth stages, and led restructurings and turnarounds, including a division of a $3B health system.

Kevin has led organisations through three exits. He co-authored three medical device patents and co-founded two startups. Under his leadership, companies have launched five products across medtech, clean tech and healthcare services. More recently he has advised on the spin-out of a growth-stage subsidiary from a global, non-US parent and the inversion of an ownership structure from outside the US to the US, and supported companies from concept to revenue in US, UK and EU markets.

"I rarely come across a CEO with such an acute understanding of the clinical and academic world. He helped frame our ideas. Making them a commercial success is the difficult part. Yet Kevin makes it so easy and efficient."

Jean-Philippe Pignol, MD, PhD, Chair, Concure Oncology Scientific Advisory Board

Jonathan Penny

Managing Director
EmailLinkedIn

Jonathan brings two decades of commercial leadership across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and emerging markets. For nine years he was Head of International Sales at Nevro Medical, a global neuromodulation company, responsible for 16 markets worth in excess of $64M. He tripled EMEA revenues, while launching the UK business from zero to a 20% market share.

At Barclay Harris, he has focused on turning clinical validation into commercial growth. Alongside it he led UK commercial operations at APOS Health, a NICE-recommended musculoskeletal platform, opening NHS accounts through the Health Innovation Networks. Prior to that, Jonathan served as CEO of O2 Worx, a UK maker of hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers. His career began in hospital sales with Vygon, Atrium Medical and Apatech.

Where

Edinburgh is home

Nearly three out of four early-stage medtech companies in the UK and the EU are considering how to enter the US market.

KSC Advisers is based in Edinburgh. Our work extends to founders and companies across the international medtech community.

The courtyard of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, the former Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
Edinburgh Futures Institute. Photograph: Arcaist, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

If you are at an inflection point, let's talk.

The clients we work with know when a moment calls for a decision, not more analysis. Built in the right order, the plan has done the analysis before that moment arrives. Judgement applied at these inflection points determines whether the venture succeeds or fails.

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