Here are six notable digital health sponsorship deals and financial giveaways this week.
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Drug discovery company makes $60 million
Causaly, a biomedical research platform, closed a $60 million Series B funding round on Thursday.
The round was led by Iconiq Development and brings the company’s total funding to date to $93 million. Alex Gorsky, the former chairman and chief executive officer of pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, is also joining as an investor, the company announced.
Causaly has developed a platform to help life science researchers use generalized artificial intelligence for drug discovery. The AI engine is designed to summarize biomedical literature and provide answers to complex research questions. The company said the round will be used to expand its commercial relationships.
Other investors are Index Ventures, Marathon Venture Capital, EBRD, Pentech Ventures and Visionaries Club.
Nvidia invests $50 million in AI-powered drug development
Nvidia, a chipmaker, is investing $50 million in major pharmaceutical company Recursion to enable AI-based drug discovery. As part of the deal, Recursion sold 7.7 million shares of Nvidia’s Class A common stock, representing about 4% of the company’s shares. Recursion says it will train its large datasets on Nvidia’s cloud AI platform.
Nvidia’s chip powers OpenAI’s synthetic AI applications like ChatGPT. By taking advantage of the AI wave, Nvidia has seen its stock price increase by nearly 200%, from $153.72 last July to $459.77 at market close on Thursday.
Healthcare companies are increasing their investments in AI to speed drug discovery. Along with Causaly and Nvidia, Google Cloud launched an AI-powered tool to accelerate drug development in May.
Northwell Health receives $10 million gift to support AI-driven research
New Hyde Park, New York-based health system Northwell Health and their research division received a $10 million gift to improve AI-driven data models through establish a new research institute.
Scott Rechler, CEO of a real estate development company, and his wife Debby Rechler gave this gift to aid in the development of AI tools that can identify and address healthcare disparities . The work will be done at the newly established Scott and Debby Rechler Health Outcomes Center within Northwell’s Health System Science Institute.
The center will use patient-reported data to begin investigating how to improve quality of life. To date, 5,000 individuals have signed up to participate in a pilot program starting in February 2023.
The gift will also be used to establish an elite professor of health outcomes and assist in recruiting a nationally recognized leader for the center.
Senior care startup hits $29 million
CarePredict, an AI-powered aged care startup, has raised $29 million in a Series A round. The company uses AI, wearables, and predictive analytics to power caregivers detailed information on when the elderly are at risk for urinary tract infections, falls, malnutrition and depression.
CarePredict primarily works with communities of senior care residents.
The round was led by the SV Health Investor Medtech Convergence Fund and Aspire Healthtech Partners. Two other firms, Secocha Ventures and Las Olas Venture Capital, along with family offices and individual investors also participated.
Certified tech company raises $27 million
Verifiable, a healthcare certification software company, has raised $27 million in a Series B round. The company works with providers and health insurers to help secure providers. issued with the appropriate licenses and certificates.
The Series B funding round was led by venture capital firm Craft Ventures. The company said in a statement that it will use the money to grow its employee base and invest in its technology infrastructure.
Along with Craft Ventures, the investors are Highland Capital Partners, 137 Ventures, Cooley, Altman Fund and Struck Capital.
Sonio announces $14 million round
Sonio, a diagnostics software company based in Paris, has announced that it has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.
The company will use the capital to start commercial development in the United States and adapt its technology for use in portable ultrasound scanners.
Sonio uses AI on prenatal ultrasound to aid in the diagnosis of a number of conditions and anomalies.
The company first received funding from the European Innovation Council in December 2022.
