Sophia Genetics Closes $30m Series D Accelerating Data-Driven Medicine
The Swiss SaaS startup Sophia Genetics is hoping to give IBM Watson a run for its money in the healthcare diagnostics space. Already used in over 350 hospitals in 53 countries to analyze next-generation sequencing data of patients and make a diagnosis, the firm’s Sophia Artificial Intelligence- a big data analytics platform that harnesses clinicians’ medical expertise to enhance genomic diagnostic via AI algorithms- is all set to occupy the world stage through this funding.
The biotech has now announced a $30 million Series D funding round, adding UK-based VC firm Balderton Capital to its investor roster, along with 360 Capital Partners. Previous investors including UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s Invoke Capital, and Alychlo, started by Mark Coucke, a Belgian pharmaceutical entrepreneur.
Hospitals that use the platform are intended to jointly benefit from expert-fed, algorithmic DNA sequencing diagnostic insights exactly because they are shared across the platform. So as the user-base scales — it says it’s adding 10 new hospitals each month — Sophia Genetics’ AIs get smarter and more accurate, and patients anywhere can benefit from the pooled knowledge.
With the new funds, Sophia Genetics is planning on increasing the number of centers using
the technology. According to Camblong, this step is also key for the performance of the diagnostics algorythm, since the more data is available to the platform, the better results it can achieve.”By 2020, with the network, members and data we have, we will move into an era of real-time epidemiology,” assures Camblong.“Since inception, our vision has been to develop innovative technological solutions to help patients, equally wherever they live. SOPHiA acts as a real disruptor by breaking down the information silos in healthcare, meaning that the information from a patient in London or Paris can for instance help better diagnose and treat a patient in Lagos or Rio,” Sophia Genetics’ CEO Jurgi Camblong says.
“Giving every healthcare professional a standardized, straightforward, and fast way to analyze these complex data sets is an essential step to unlock the potential of data-driven medicine,” Balderton Capital Partner James Wise said in a statement. “As diagnostic kits and sequencers become cheaper and more powerful, we believe that there is an opportunity to build the defining software layer on top of these technologies in genomics, just as Windows did for PCs and Android has for smartphones.”
“While recent technology disruptions have made DNA sequencing more affordable and available to the masses, issuing a clinically-proofed diagnostic based on a large set of genomic data remained time consuming and largely incomplete for healthcare professionals. Clinicians using SOPHiA GENETICS’ artificial intelligence now have a best- in-class technology to unlock the full knowledge hidden behind DNA samples, and to set the right diagnostic for the right condition, in particular for oncology and hereditary disorders. The clinicians we met were unanimous about the incredible value brought by SOPHiA as part of their daily routine. We have been very impressed by the accomplishments of the team to date, and we are very excited to be working alongside the founders towards establishing SOPHiA GENETICS as the global leader in Data-Driven Medicine (DDM).” Said Nicolas Autret, Partner at 360 Capital Partners.
