Medtech Startup Eko.Ai Raises US$ 4 Million To Automate Heart Disease Diagnosis and Management
Source: Thailand Medical News Jan 20, 2020 4 years, 2 months, 4 weeks, 22 hours, 45 minutes ago
A new
medtech startup based in Singapore,
EKO.AI has raised a US$4 million round co-led by Sequoia India and Singapore government-linked strategic investor EDBI. Partech Ventures, SGInnovate and Startup Health also participated in the round.
Dr Carolyn Lam From Eko.Ai
The
startup Eko.Ai has developed a machine learning platform to automate the slow, manual and error-prone process of measuring and interpreting
echocardiograms, or ultrasound images of the
heart.
Dr Carolyn Lam co-founder of
Eko.Ai told
Thailand Medical News, “With this funding, we can further develop our innovative solutions with the ultimate goal of democratising
echocardiography, the safest and most commonly used tool to image the
heart. Our ultimate goal is to put
heart health screening into everyone’s hands.
Cardiovascular disease remains the top cause of death for men and women globally and we’re excited to help address this global health issue in a meaningful way.”
The medical startup was founded in August 2017 by James Hare, a serial entrepreneur, investor and co-founder of eDreams; Dr Carolyn Lam, a senior consultant cardiologist at the National Heart Centre Singapore and professor at Duke-National University of Singapore; and Dr Yoran Hummel, founder and former general manager of the Groningen Imaging Core Laboratory of the University Medical Center Groningen.
Pieter Kemps, Principal, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore added, “When we first met the founders, we were struck by how passionate they were about putting better tools in the hands of
cardiologists and researchers. The combination of Carolyn’s deep domain knowledge, James’ commercial acumen and his experience as a founder is truly unique and compelling.
Eko.Ai is going after a big market and aims to make a real positive impact on one of the most important areas in
healthcare.”
The new funds will be used to grow the company’s development team and accelerate commercial operations in the US and Europe.
Some of the potential applications of the
eko.ai platform and tools range from expanding the use of
echocardiography in clinical care to improving the performance of
cardiovascular clinical trials, especially for the early detection and prediction of
heart disease.
The startup has ongoing commercial and academic research collaborations with multiple partners, including Astrazeneca, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Samsung Medical Center’s
Heart, Vascular and Stroke Institute, and the University of Alberta, with more to be announced soon.
Chief executive officer and co-founder of
eko.ai, James Hare, said “We&rsqu
o;re honored to work with such world-renowned partners. The strong momentum behind our collaborations reflects the growing recognition that the combination of machine learning and
echocardiography can be a powerful research tool for improved patient phenotyping and hypothesis generation.”
EDBI’s chief executive officer and president, Chu Swee Yeok added, “We look forward to supporting
eko.ai as they expand globally and advance the use of
AI in
healthcare to improve
cardiologists’ detection, accuracy and productivity,” “Nurturing innovative home-grown companies in deep tech industries including
healthcare remains a cornerstone of our investment priorities and together with like-minded investors,
eko.ai will have a booster shot to transform medical diagnostic imaging and delivery of care to
cardiovascular patients.”
