Oxford Sciences Innovation has led a $13.4m series A round for Ultromics, an Oxford spinout working on technology to diagnose coronary heart disease.
Ultromics, a UK-based artificial intelligence (AI) technology developer focused on coronary heart disease, raised £10m ($13.4m) in series A funding yesterday led by university venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation.
Neptune, RT Ventures, GT Healthcare, Tanarra and Fushia also participated in the round, as did private investors Andre Crawford-Brunt and Dieter Spälti.
Founded in May 2017, Ultromics has created echocardiography analysis technology called Topological Analysis. An echocardiogram is a form of ultrasound scan that is used to check the structure of a patient’s heart and surrounding blood vessels to diagnose cardiac issues.
Topological Analysis aims to reduce diagnostic errors by 75%, thereby increasing the scan’s accuracy significantly. It achieves this through AI technology, whereas currently cardiologists analyse images based only on a few key factors.
The AI algorithm was created by Ross Upton, co-founder and CEO of Ultromics. Upton co-founder the company with Paul Leeson, professor of cardiovascular medicine at University of Oxford, who is overseeing a trial that began at six hospitals and will be expanded to 20.
The series A round will enable the spinout to bring the technology to market in the US and in the UK in early 2019. The spinout will also continue to invest in research and development.
