AI Medical Service, a Tokyo-based company developing software for detecting stomach cancer, announced today that it has raised $42.9 million in Series B funding.Investors include Globis Capital Partners, World Innovation Lab and Sony Innovation Fund from IGV. The funding will be used for clinical trials of the company, which looks for signs of cancer in real time during endoscopy, as well as product and overseas expansion.
This brings AI Medical Service’s total funding to $57 million to date, including a previous $9 million round from another entity in August 2018. The company’s software was founded in 2017 and focuses on signs of cancer in gastrointestinal organs, including the esophagus and colon, with the goal of reducing the number of hours it takes doctors and other healthcare professionals to perform such scans. AI Medical Service is currently working with 80 medical institutions on research and is aiming to get its products approved.
According to the CEO of AI Medical Service, the global market is growing by 10% per year, while Japanese manufacturers hold about 70% of the market. Regarding its expansion strategy, he says that the company will initially focus on other Asian countries, such as Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, where there are high rates of stomach cancer. After that, it will turn to the US and Canada.
Research on this type of cancer has shown that up to 30% of lesions are often missed during endoscopy. The company's goal is to increase the accuracy of test results
There is a trend for doctors to diagnose cancer in collaboration with AI in the future. With the support of leading medical institutions and experts, the AI endoscopy developed by AI Medical Service will help patients on a global scale.
