Us2.ai, a Singapore-based medtech developer, announced Thursday it has raised $15 million in a series A round led by IHH Healthcare and Heal Partners, with participation from Pappas Capital and existing investors including Sequoia India, EDBI and Partech Ventures.
The new funds will be used to drive Us2.ai’s ambitious growth targets for clinical implementation in the US, Europe and Asia, as well as the expansion of commercial activities with leading pharmaceutical companies, research labs, and imaging providers worldwide, Us2.ai said in a statement.
“Us2.ai will increase patient access to echocardiography by providing a unique AI solution that completely automates the reading of studies, with accuracy comparable to experts, yet over 30 times faster; leaving doctors in full control and with more time to spend with patients,” said Dr Carolyn Lam, Senior Consultant Cardiologist at National Heart Centre Singapore, Professor at Duke-National University of Singapore and co-founder of Us2.ai.
Meanwhile, Us2.ai Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder James Hare said the company’s focus has been to create a comprehensive solution that goes beyond the existing industry standard of partial automation requiring manual intervention and providing limited measurements.
“Our software automatically processes full echocardiographic studies of 2D and Doppler images from any vendor, in less than two minutes, delivering complete echo reports, with fully explainable measurements, editable annotations and conclusions for every chamber of the heart,” he added.
Us2.ai uses machine learning to automate the fight against heart disease. The company’s software tools improve clinical decision making and cardiovascular research for clinical trials using echocardiography, the safest and most common cardiac imaging modality. It connects institutions and imaging labs around the world on a platform of ready to use automation tools for view classification, segmentation and federated learning across diverse, anonymous patient and disease cohorts.
“Through investments in innovative digital health companies like Us2.ai, we seek to support and make cutting-edge clinical tools and care (in this case AI-powered echocardiogram analysis) more accessible and affordable for patients, and enhance the delivery of care by doctors. This will speed up the diagnosis of heart conditions for the public,” said IHH Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Dr Kelvin Loh.
Us2.ai has completed multiple projects with global pharmaceutical partners as well as a ground breaking approval study at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Their patented software workflow was recently described in Lancet Digital Health, where external validation was demonstrated in large, diverse, real world patient studies globally.
“Heal is delighted to support the company’s mission to automate the fight against cardiovascular disease, the world’s number one killer. We are extremely impressed by the development pace and broad scope of Us2.ai’s leading technology. We look forward to helping it reach its potential for global scale whilst democratizing access to this revolutionary tool for the early diagnosis of heart issues,” said HEAL Partner Martin Robinson.
HEAL is an early and growth stage acceleration investment vehicle focused on revenue generating growth businesses in the health, education and lifestyle sectors with the potential for global scale or industry disruption. It is led by a team of proven founders, investors and operators. It is focused on capitalizing on opportunities created by new specialties and technologies in large and growing markets and has a strong commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG).
Singapore’s MedTech startup Stratificare plans to raise $12M Pre-Series A round