Ubie, AI-based assistant for triage, pre-diagnosis, and decision-making support, raised $18.7 million in Series B financing from Japanese pharmaceutical distributor Suzuken co.
The company also entered into a strategic business partnership with Ubie.
Recently, the company released an add-on COVID-19 triage system for its AI-driven medical platform used by 200+ medical facilities.
With new funds, Ubie plans to expand its research and development capabilities and staff in sales and engineering teams. The funds will also enable the company to scale its hospital software as a service product Ubie for Hospital and its AI-based digital COVID-19 symptom assessment app.
Ubie for Hospitals is an AI-based patient interview system designed to convert data entered by patients on tablet terminals into proper technical terms and display it on doctors’ computers.
Ubie’s COVID-19 digital tool helps people get important information about the corona pandemic, assess their health symptoms for corona risk, and navigate to the most appropriate care setting according to the company.
“Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety is increasing as the healthcare system is on the verge of collapse,” says Yoshinori Abe, Ubie co-founder, and MD. “I strongly believe that our company is going to play a crucial role in combating the current crisis. Our mission, “to develop a healthcare guide for everyone,” has never been more critical during these uncertain times. With our AI-based symptom checker and clinical decision support technology, which we have been developing since 2013, we will make healthcare accessible to everyone by creating a “search engine” for healthcare. We are going to go full throttle to realize our company mission as soon as possible, with help from this fresh round of funding, and with the full support of all our stakeholders.”
mHealth companies raised $365 million in Q1 2020, a 72% increase QoQ compared to $212 million raised in Q1 2019, according to Mercom Q1 2020 Digital Health Funding Report. Recently, Orbita, a provider of conversational AI-enabled chatbots for the healthcare industry, secured $9 million in Series A financing round.
The Tokyo-based startup has raised over $20 million since its founding in 2017. Its existing investors include K4 Ventures, D4V, and Kansai Electric Power.
Image credit: Ubie
