Elucid’s $80m round heads latest digital health financings

The environment for financing in the digital health sector may be lacklustre at present, but the deals continue to trickle through, and the latest crop is headed by a respectable $80 million Series C for medical imaging specialist Elucid with Eleos Health, Vida Health, CoverSelf, Doctorly, Cromatic and Almouneer also in on the action.

Boston, US-based Elucid said it would use the third-round financing to help commercialise and expand its diagnostic tools for cardiovascular diseases like atherosclerosis. The round was led by Elevage Medical Technologies, backed by other investors, and takes the total raised by the company to $121 million.

Elucid’s artificial intelligence-powered PlaqueIQ software is said to be the only FDA-cleared non-invasive tool able to accurately characterise arterial plaques, simulating what pathologists would see under a microscope as it converts CT angiography into scientific images using AI algorithms that can then be used to detect strokes and heart attacks. It is also developing the technology for a new indication, non-invasive measurement of fractional flow reserve (FFRCT) to measure coronary blockages and the extent of ischaemia.

There was also a healthy $40 million Series B for Israeli start-up Eleos Health, which is applying AI behavioural health technology to gather insights into patients’ wellbeing by analysing their voices. The technology runs in the background of mental health consultations, and Eleos will use the latest financing to extend the capabilities of the platform to include group therapy sessions, compliance automation, case management, concurrent documentation and value-based care support, and expand its headcount by around 50 from its current headcount of 95 by the end of next year.

Menlo Ventures led the round, with participation from F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads, Arkin Digital Health, SamsungNEXT and ION. Since its formation in 2020, Eleos has raised $68 million.

Vida Health has raised $28.5 million in funding, named a new chief executive and announced a partnership with Withings in a busy period for the company, which runs a digital platform that offers personalised health programmes and live, one-on-one support from an expert coach or therapist to people with chronic diseases.

New CEO Joe Murad joins the San Francisco company from WithMe Health and replaces Stephanie Tilenius, who will continue to serve the company in an advisory capacity, while the new Withings alliance is focusing on the delivery of remote monitoring devices – a blood pressure monitor, scale or both – to Vida members. The cash injection - led by existing investors, including General Atlantic, Ally Bridge, Canvas Ventures, Hercules Capital, and other insiders – will be deployed to seek growth in the diabetes and obesity markets.

Start-up CoverSelf has announced a $3.4 million extension of its seed financing round, taking the total raised to $8.2 million for its AI-powered platform that is designed to root out inefficiencies and poor practice in the settlement of reimbursement claims for healthcare services. Specifically, it is aimed at insurers who want to handle claims themselves, rather than farming them out to third-party providers who are sometimes incentivised to reject them, holding up the process and introducing inefficiencies.

The two-year-old San Francisco-based company says the platform creates a fully open and transparent system that democratises the claims process. The round saw participation from BEENEXT, 3One4 Capital, and new investor Z21 ventures, and will be used to scale operations, build GenAI capabilities, and increase CoverSelf’s headcount.

Berlin, Germany-based medical practice management software firm Doctorly has completed a €7.2 million ($7.8 million) Series A extension backed by Simon Capital, Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungen, UNIQA Ventures and Healwell AI, just a few months after booking €10 million from the first round.

The five-year-old company’s target client base is practices that still rely on old disk-based software systems or even paper records, which it hopes to convert to its cloud-based platform, which manages medical records, prescriptions, billing and appointments. It was the first company to get approval from the German authorities for this type of software, and will use the proceeds of the Series A to build its commercial capabilities. The investment by Canadian data science firm Healwell AI accompanies an agreement to integrate its clinical decision support platform into Doctorly.

Cromatic, a San Francisco start-up taking a digital approach to connecting vetted contract research organisations with their customers, has raised $5.3 million in a seed funding round that will be used to seek and sign up new CRO new clients and add functionality to their platform, which currently has around $15 million in R&D budget under management.

The company is also looking to work on a product roadmap for biotechs and CROs, forge strategic partnerships and expand its team across product, engineering, sales and customer success thanks to the round, which was led by AgFunder and LifeX and supported by Accel, Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, FJ Labs and other angel investors.

Finally, Egyptian health tech company Almouneer has raised $3.6 million in seed funding led by Global Ventures with participation from Wrightwood Investments, Proparco and Digital Africa through the Bridge Fund and other international funds.

The money is earmarked for further development of its DRU software, described as “a patient-centric lifestyle app built for millions suffering from diabetes, prediabetes and obesity in the Middle East and Africa,” connecting patients with healthcare providers. It will also go towards hiring new talent for the company’s network of tech-enabled clinics in Egypt and expanding into international markets.