Aignostics leads latest crop of digital health financings

Recent funding rounds in the digital health arena feature digital pathology start-up Aignostics, remote care specialists TCC, Yazen Health, and Nema Health, wearables developer Alimetry, and clinical trial automation start-up Research Grid.

Digital pathology specialist Aignostics, which develops artificial intelligence algorithms to glean information from medical images and combine it with epidemiological, clinical, and genomic data, has completed a $34 million Series B financing.

The new round – led by Athos and Hightech Gründer Fonds, as well as other backers including the venture capital arm of Boehringer Ingelheim and the Mayo Clinic – takes the total raised by the Berlin, Germany-based company to date above the $55 million mark. It will go towards refining Aignostics' approach to designing foundational models for digital pathology and offering new services for target and biomarker selection.

Hamburg, Germany-based telemedicine company TCC has secured €20 million ($21.4 million) in Series A funding led by the logistics entrepreneur Captain Thomas Pötzsch that will be used to expand its artificial intelligence-powered platform for intensive care units.

The two-year-old company provides remote support for ICUs, including algorithms to analyse patient data and assist with real-time monitoring and 24/7 access to intensive care specialists via telemedicine. Chief executive and co-founder Professor Dr Christian Storm said the funding will "drive forward" their "successful algorithm development programme on the way to a holistic digital twin."

Yazen Health raised €19.5 million in a first round that will support its digital health platform for obesity care, which includes remote care support, lifestyle guidance, and prescription services for GLP-1 agonist medicines. The new financing will go towards expanding the company's services beyond home market Sweden – where it is already profitable – into new markets like the UK, Germany, Spain, Norway, and the Netherlands.

The Series A was co-led by Evli Growth Partners and Helsana HealthInvest, with participation from Almaz Capital, Yabeo, and seed backers Luminar Ventures and Aggregate Media, according to the Lund start-up.

Armed with an $18 million Series A2 financing led by GD1, New Zealand's Alimetry is preparing to ramp up the commercial launch of its wearable device for diagnosing gastrointestinal disorders, expand operations, and develop new applications for the technology. The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) GI Opportunity Fund, Olympus Innovation Ventures, IceHouse Ventures, and existing investors also supported the round.

The platform measures electrical signals in the GI tract and takes the form of electrodes worn on the stomach over a few hours as patients eat and digest a meal, transmitting data to an AI-powered app to analyse the results. It has already been approved for clinical use by the FDA, with small-scale marketing starting in 2022, and the rollout will now be accelerated, according to the company, which is also based in Minneapolis in the US.

A specialist in online care for people suffering from trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – Connecticut, US-headquartered Nema Health – has completed a $14.5 million fundraising, according to a report in Behavioural Health Business, which does not name the investors in the round.

It comes around a year after Nema Health raised $4.1 million in seed financing, co-led by Optum Ventures and .406 Ventures, for its 'wraparound' remote support platform based on talking therapy, peer support, and prescription of psychiatric medicines. The business operates in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, and California.

Finally, London, UK-based AI specialist Research Grid (R.grid) raised £5 million ($6.5 million) in seed financing to develop its platform for automating the administration of clinical trials, in the hope of making them more efficient and successful. It has developed two software products – Inclusive for community engagement during trial preparation and TrialEngine to automate back-office tasks – that it says can make trials 'admin-free' from pre-trial to study close.

The round was led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Arve Capital, Ada Ventures, Morgan Stanley Inclusive Venture Lab, Arāya Ventures, Ascension Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, and Atomico Angels.

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