University of Birmingham spins out Dexter AI to commercialise its health records data platform

The University of Birmingham has spun out Dexter AI Ltd to commercialise software that extracts analysable datasets from electronic health records, the university said in an announcement published on 2 September.

The platform, called Dexter, pulls structured data out of records held across primary and secondary care, along with claims data and private prescriber records. The university says it produces results from large healthcare datasets in minutes, cutting the time needed for epidemiology studies, drug safety and effectiveness work, clinical audits and clinical trials. It describes the product as a web-based application that users take to their data, so that records can be analysed without being moved between platforms.

Who is behind it

Dexter was built by Professor Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar, Dr Krishna Gokhale and Professor Joht Singh Chandan in Birmingham’s Department of Applied Health Sciences.

Nirantharakumar, now based at King’s College London, becomes chief scientific officer. Gokhale becomes chief technology officer. Chandan, who the university says became the UK’s youngest clinical professor in 2024, becomes chief medical officer. The company is led by chief executive Christian Billinghurst, who the university says worked with the team over several years while Dexter was incubated in a University of Birmingham Enterprise commercialisation programme.

“Dexter has proven transformative in a university setting, contributing to the department’s growth in scale, impact and grant success,” Billinghurst said in the university’s announcement.

What the register shows

Companies House gives a sharper timeline than the announcement does.

Dexter AI Limited is company number 15243481. It was incorporated on 28 October 2023 with a share capital of £1, is registered at 105 High Street, Weston Favell, Northampton, and files under business and domestic software development.

The company existed for more than two and a half years before the academics joined it. Its only director from incorporation was Daniel Peter Somers, who held 75% or more of the shares and voting rights. On 27 July 2026 Billinghurst, Chandan, Gokhale and Nirantharakumar were all appointed directors, the register records Somers ceasing to be a person with significant control in July 2026, and Gokhale was recorded as holding more than 25% but not more than 50% of the shares. Somers resigned as a director on 19 August 2026.

The deal paperwork followed a day later. On 20 August the company filed a sub-division of its shares, a statement of capital following an allotment made on 22 July that took nominal capital to £7.70, resolutions covering the allotment and the removal of pre-emption rights, and a new set of articles.

No university entity appears on the register of persons with significant control. That is not evidence the university holds nothing, because the register only captures holdings above 25%. Neither the university nor the company has published the equity split.

What has not been disclosed

The announcement names no investors and gives no amount raised. Law firm Freeths said in its own release that it advised University of Birmingham Enterprise on the transaction, with managing associate Rosanna Brown leading the corporate work and partner Martin Noble the intellectual property arrangements. Freeths did not publish a figure either.

The usage numbers all come from the university. It says Dexter has been used in more than 150 peer-reviewed studies, including papers in Nature Medicine, The Lancet journals and the BMJ, has supported over 100 early-career researchers, and has contributed to more than £30 million in research funding. None of those figures has been independently verified.

What it means for UK founders

The filings are a clean worked example of how a UK university spinout is assembled, and the shape is a common one: a company incorporated well in advance, a sub-division and allotment of shares to create the classes the deal needs, pre-emption rights disapplied so new shares can be issued, and fresh articles adopted to carry the negotiated terms. Our explainer on university spinouts covers how research reaches that point, and the share structure it produces is set out in our guide to UK cap tables.

Where the asset being spun out is software written inside a department, the intellectual property assignment matters at least as much as the equity, a point covered in our piece on data and IP ownership in AI startups.

The university says the team built partnerships with IQVIA, Cegedim Health Data and Adelphi Real World during incubation. Gokhale said University Hospitals Birmingham is using Dexter to extract data from maternity and acute care records, and Chandan said the company is exploring work with police forces and, later, local government and social care.