Imaging AI investment booms post-Covid
Investment in the imaging AI startup space has soared 35% in 2021 so far, with new fundraising rounds, buyouts and IPOs signalling a renewed post-pandemic appetite for the technology. Partnerships between solution providers have also ramped up, possibly signalling precursors to full-blown mergers.
Click here for our HBI Intelligence EMEA Imaging report, where you can find a full table of all the imaging AI startups mentioned here with more details on each.
AI-based imaging interpretation solution providers have raised around €450m so far this year, increasing total investment into the sector – which stood just under €1.3bn by end-2020 – by 35% to just over €1.7bn. Our infographic below shows the movers and shakers among the top 40 startups in the space.
Those that have scored big-ticket investments this year include Viz.ai, Infervision, Aidoc, Lunit, Ultromics, DiA Imaging Analysis and Elucid Bio through new fundraising rounds totalling nearly €300m, while Zebra Medical agreed to be acquired by Nanox for $200m ($100m/€85m initially, rising to $200m/€170m later dependent on milestones) and Vuno IPOed raising €28m. Infervision, which is based in China and just raised €120m ($140m), is also prepping an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange which could raise another €260m ($300m).
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for technology-driven solutions to healthcare capacity constraints everywhere. Anecdotal evidence suggests adoption of these solutions by healthcare operators has accelerated in response, and providers are clearly having to raise capital to scale up and meet this new demand.
As well as raising capital, imaging AI solution providers have also been partnering with each other to provide more comprehensive suites of solutions.
Aidoc, which provides emergency imaging solutions, has partnered with neurological condition specialist icometrix to provide an AI-based stroke suite. In the area of cardiac imaging, Circle Cardiovascular Imaging and DiA Imaging Analysis are combining their MRI/CT and ultrasound solutions, respectively, to create a ‘complete cardiovascular imaging portfolio’, they say. Imbio and Riverain Technologies have done the same to build a complete lung health solution.
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