Biofourmis raises US$100m in Series C round led by SoftBank

DIGITAL therapeutics startup Biofourmis has raised US$100 million in a Series C equity round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, in hopes of capturing a significant surge in demand for virtual care in the face of the pandemic.

The deal is estimated to be at four times the valuation of its US$35 million funding round in May last year, BT understands. According to sources, this deal puts the company within reach of a US$1 billion valuation, or close to a "unicorn" status.

The company has now raised up to US$145 million from investors, with existing investors Openspace Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Sequoia Capital and EDBI also participating in its latest round.

Chief executive and founder Kuldeep Singh Rajput told BT that the company - which is cash-flow positive and Ebitda-positive - had not been actively seeking significant capital from new investors. But, after meetings with Softbank's Masayoshi Son, there was an "exciting opportunity presented for Biofourmis to enter new markets such as Japan, China and the Middle East, as well as rapidly scale the startup's operations in the US".

With the new funds, Biofourmis, a startup founded in Singapore and headquartered in Boston, will also look to develop, validate and commercialise several digital therapeutics solutions, said the company in a statement on Thursday.

The startup has seen a significant ramp-up in demand for its platform during the pandemic. Mr Rajput told BT that the firm's revenue in the first half of the year alone was 10 times more than the whole of 2019.

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On the back of the push for its digital healthcare solutions, the chief executive said that Biofourmis will be "laser focused on certain areas that are most profitable and most scalable".

As such, it will split operations into two main divisions - Biofourmis Health and Biofourmis Therapeutics.

Biofourmis Health will focus on scaling its current platform, which continuously monitors a patient's heart rate, respiration rate and fluid in the blood (among 20 other things) through sensors in an armband. This platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics software to predict if a patient is at risk; and if so, will alert and send personalised treatment plans to healthcare professionals to intervene before anything happens.

Patients and healthcare professionals will also be able to view these statistics live through an app, or a dashboard.

Biofourmis Therapeutics, on the other hand, will focus on developing the software needed to independently treat patients with heart failure, cancer or coronary artery disease. The platform could also be used in tandem with other prescribed drugs.

Patients can simply follow personalised therapeutic recommendations - predicted by AI - for treatment, in the form of notifications on their phone. This would reduce the need for healthcare professionals to constantly intervene for treatment.

The software is undergoing pivotal trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy like a drug treatment and expected to receive FDA clearance in the next 12 months (similar to a drug).

Unlike other companies in the space which typically form partnerships with hospitals and insurance companies, Biofourmis works with pharmaceutical companies to pair its digital therapeutics solution with their drug to improve efficacy. This allows for better management and treatment of patients with complex chronic conditions, said the company.

Currently, Biofourmis' customer base is dominated by the likes of big pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, while the remaining 25 per cent is made up of healthcare systems across the world.

The sheer reach of such projects also allows the startup to scale quickly, added Mr Rajput.

Its solutions were also deployed by Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) in July to remotely monitor Covid-19 patients in the city-state.

EDBI, the corporate investment arm of Singapore's Economic Development Board, said it was encouraged by Biofourmis' contribution to the country's fight against Covid-19, and will look towards supporting the startup to strengthen healthcare ecosystems in Singapore and beyond.

"The latest funding round is a significant milestone in (Biofourmis') growth journey as they develop AI-powered digital therapeutic solutions to augment conventional health services," said Chu Swee Yeok, chief executive officer and president of EDBI.

Meanwhile, Greg Moon, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said: "We believe Biofourmis is a leader in using AI and machine learning-based solutions to advance digital therapeutics."