Dion Thomas is Co-Founder of Wellumio, a New Zealand medtech company developing Axana, a portable MRI-based brain scanner for rapid stroke detection at the point of care. Wellumio is transforming emergency stroke diagnosis by bringing advanced neuroimaging directly to patients within the critical golden hour.

Wellumio was founded in 2019 alongside co-founders Dr. Shieak Tzeng (CEO), Dr. Sergei Obruchkov, and Dr. Paul Teal, emerging from over a decade of scientific research at Victoria University of Wellington. The technology grew out of portable magnetic resonance research originally designed for industrial applications.

Wellumio's proprietary Pulsed Gradient Free Mapping (PGFM) technology received a U.S. patent in December 2025 and has demonstrated agreement with conventional MRI in preclinical studies and first-in-human feasibility trials. The Axana device weighs just 50kg, requires no contrast agents or shielded rooms, and delivers brain imaging in minutes.

Wellumio raised $7.28 million in its pre-Series A first close in February 2026, led by Nuance Connected Capital, with participation from Icehouse Ventures, NZGCP, and other prominent investors. The company established a U.S. subsidiary in the San Francisco Bay Area in early 2025 to advance clinical trials and commercialization.

Wellumio is addressing a global stroke diagnostic imaging market estimated at over $8.9 billion across in-hospital and pre-hospital care settings. The company is conducting feasibility trials in Australia and preparing for FDA De Novo submission in 2027, with plans to relocate headquarters to California.