Amidst the funding blitzkrieg that India’s health tech companies have seen, there have been rare pure-play diagnostics companies raising money. COVID further accelerated investments into platforms that still provide basic and more emergent healthcare services. However, Qure.ai, the health tech upstart that provides a solution for using AI for medical imaging diagnostics, has raised $40Mn in fresh funding, despite the diagnostics sector not receiving significant part of the lucrative healthtech capital pie.
The round was led by Novo Holdings (a global investor in healthcare and life sciences) and HealthQuad and included the participation of existing investor MassMutual Ventures. Qure.ai looks to deploy the funds to further extend and strengthen its reach in the international area (especially in Europe and the US), and intensify product development for critical care and community diagnostics.
This funding round comes after it had raised $16 million in a round led by Sequoia India back in 2020.
“Qure.ai is at the forefront of transforming diagnostics in both acute and chronic ailments, which is fully aligned with our mission of advancing high-quality and accessible healthcare using innovation and digitization. Further, we are excited to connect Qure.ai to our portfolio partners as we see several promising synergies,” said Dr. Amit Kakar, Senior Partner, Head of Novo Holdings Equity Asia.
As for the six-year-old Qure.ai, the company describes itself as a provider of AI solutions that is disrupting the radiology ‘status quo.’ How? This is possible by enhancing imaging accuracy and improving health outcomes with the assistance of machine-supported tools. Founded by Prashant Warrier and Dr. Pooja Rao, the company claims to have grown by 15 times in the financial year 2021-22.
Qure.ai, which happens to be the first AI company to be featured in the medical journal Lancet, describes its automated medical imaging tools as the first level of screening for many infections and non-communicable conditions. If one uses them, then the time to diagnosis will reduce, enabling the identification of critical scenarios “within minutes” and the aversion of fatalities and improvement in the quality of medical care.
Its AI-enabled diagnostics are currently available for Lung related ailments along with early neurocritical care. The company rose to prominence largely for its revolutionary chest x-ray tech — qXR and qCT-Lung — that helps in early diagnosis of diseases such as tuberculosis, COVID-19 among others.
Its tech reads and interprets medical images like X-rays, CTs, and Ultrasounds in less than a minute, and today, its technology helps more than four million people across 50 countries. For now, it aims to remain “bullish” in its market expansion, especially in the US and Europe, and make healthcare more accessible and affordable to patients worldwide.
