A French medical technology startup focused on “transforming prenatal medicine” recently gained $14 million in Series A funding.
The Paris-based company, named Sonio, has now raised $20 million since it was founded in 2020. Its Series A financing round was led by Cross Border Impact Ventures and Elaia.
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Sonio’s AI platform automates ultrasound reporting. The technology is meant to enable healthcare providers to conduct ultrasound exams with greater accuracy, speed and efficiency, CEO Cécile Brosset told MedCity News.
“We are focused on streamlining the end-to-end workflow for practitioners — from sharing the ultrasound images with the patients to reporting, and from quality assurance to anomaly detection. We want to cover every small task and optimize the medical time being utilized. Our aim is to reduce healthcare experts’ time to do low-value-added tasks, so they can focus on other crucial aspects,” she declared.
The company receives images as they are acquired by the sonographer, regardless of the ultrasound machine’s model or brand, Brosset explained. Sonio’s AI platform then processes these images in the cloud and provides practitioners with a real-time analysis. The startup claims that its technology can identify more than 300 potential prenatal syndromes and anomalies with an accuracy rate of at least 95%.
Sonio’s platform also includes a clinical decision support tool designed to prioritize potential rare diagnoses.
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“It is trained on expert literature explaining which signs are most probably associated with different pathologies. This type of AI does not learn from images, but from proprietary text-based clinical databases. It basically mimics clinical reasoning through a very complex statistical decision tree,” Brosset said.
The company sells its software to hospitals, women’s health groups and private physician practices. These providers can purchase either a monthly or yearly subscription.
Brosset identified GE HealthCare, Ultrasound.ai, Diagnoly and AS Software as some of Sonio’s biggest competitors. When asked how her startup sets itself apart from these companies, she said that Sonio’s goal “is not just to develop advanced tech, but to save lives with the help of the tech” — but it’s probably safe to assume that Sonio’s competitors are keen on saving lives as well.
With its new fundraise, Sonio plans to expand its team and initiate its commercial development in the U.S.
The company’s technology has been cleared for use in Europe, but it hasn’t been cleared by the FDA yet. Brosset declined to answer MedCity’s question about whether there is a reimbursement path for Sonio’s technology.
Photo: Blue Planet Studio, Getty Images
