Here are six notable digital health funding deals and financial gifts this week.
Drug discovery company lands $60M
Causaly, a biomedical research platform, closed a $60 million Series B funding round Thursday.
The round was led by Iconiq Growth and brings the company’s total funding to date to $93 million. Alex Gorsky, former chair and CEO of pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, also joined as an investor, the company announced.
Causaly has developed a platform to help life science researchers use generative artificial intelligence for drug discovery. The AI tool is designed to summarize biomedical literature and produce answers to complex research questions. The company said the round will be used to expand its commercial relationships.
Other investors were Index Ventures, Marathon Venture Capital, EBRD, Pentech Ventures and Visionaries Club.
Nvidia makes $50M investment in AI-enabled drug development
Nvidia, a chipmaker, is investing $50 million in big pharmaceutical company Recursion to enable AI-based drug discovery. As part of the deal, Recursion sold Nvidia 7.7 million shares of its Class A common stock, which represents an approximate 4% stake in the company. Recursion said it will train its large datasets on Nvidia's cloud AI platform.
Nvidia’s chips help power OpenAI’s generative AI applications such as ChatGPT. By riding the AI wave, Nvidia has seen a nearly 200% increase in its share price, from $153.72 last July to $459.77 at market close Thursday.
Healthcare companies are increasingly investing in AI to speed up medication discovery. Along with Causaly and Nvidia, Google Cloud launched an AI-powered tool to accelerate drug development in May.
Northwell Health receives $10M gift to support AI-driven research
New Hyde Park, New York-based health system Northwell Health and its research arm received a $10 million gift to advance AI-driven data models through the creation of a new institute.
Scott Rechler, CEO of a real estate development company, and his wife Debby Rechler donated the gift to support the development of AI tools that can identify and address healthcare disparities. The work will be done at the newly created Scott and Debby Rechler Center for Health Outcomes within Northwell's Institute of Health System Science.
The center will use patient-reported data to start investigating how to improve quality of life. So far, 5,000 individuals are enrolled in a pilot program that began in February 2023.
The gift will be also used to establish an endowed professor of health outcomes and support the recruitment of a nationally recognized leader for the center.
Senior care startup lands $29M
CarePredict, an AI-enabled senior care startup, raised $29 million in a Series A round. The company uses AI, wearables and predictive analytics to provide caregivers insights on when seniors are at risk for urinary tract infections, falls, malnutrition and depression.
CarePredict primarily works with senior care resident communities.
The round was led by SV Health Investors' Medtech Convergence Fund and Aspire Healthtech Partners. Two other companies, Secocha Ventures and Las Olas Venture Capital, also participated, along with family offices and individual investors.
Credentialing tech company raises $27M
Verifiable, a healthcare credentialing software company, raised $27 million in a Series B round. The company works with providers and health insurance companies to help ensure providers have the right licenses and certifications.
The Series B funding round was led by venture capital firm Craft Ventures. The company said in a release it will use the funds to grow its employee base and invest in its tech infrastructure.
Along with Craft Ventures, investors were Highland Capital Partners, 137 Ventures, Cooley, the Altman Fund and Struck Capital.
Sonio announces $14M round
Paris-based Sonio, a diagnostic support software company, announced it raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.
The company will use the capital to initiate commercial development in the United States and adapt its technology for use in portable ultrasound scanners.
Sonio uses AI on prenatal ultrasounds to aid in the diagnosis of certain conditions and anomalies.
The company first received funding from the European Innovation Council in December 2022.
