Sequoia, MassMutual back Indian medical imaging player
Qure, an India-based artificial intelligence-enabled medical imaging start-up, has raised $16 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India and MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia.
Qure, founded in 2016, is a subsidiary of Fractal, an India-based data analytics provider that previously received venture capital support.
Founded by data scientists Prashant Warier - formerly of Fractal - and Pooja Rao, Qure uses AI to cross-reference medical images from a database of seven million scans with a view to aiding diagnoses. It offers three products – qXR, qER and qQuant – that analyze chest scans, head scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.
The company is headquartered in the US and India although its products are not available for commercial use in the former location. It claims its solutions are used in 20 countries including Canada, India, Switzerland, and France, while healthcare-focused non-governmental organizations employ Qure in African and Southeast Asian countries.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to support regulatory clearances, expand its geographic presence, and broaden its product portfolio.
“Medical imaging is one of the fields in healthcare where there is enough digitized data to turn the promise of AI into a reality. What sets them apart is their ability to deploy commercially at scale across multiple countries; something many others have failed to do as strong algorithms don’t always translate to robust commercial products,” said Anjana Sasidharan, a principal at Sequoia.
According to Mindfields, an emergent technology consulting firm in Australia, Qure is one of eight firms in Asia providing AI-enabled medical diagnostic solutions. A majority of firms in the sector are based in the US. In India, Niramal Health Analytix, Aindra, Predible Health, SigTuple, and Advenio Tecnosys also offer similar digital pathology services.
Sequoia has invested in 17 healthcare companies in India. The firm is currently looking to raise between $1.28 and $1.35 billion for its latest set of funds – comprising separate venture and growth vehicles – for deployment in India and Southeast Asia.
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