Medtech startup eko.ai raises US$4m in funding round co-led by Sequoia India, EDBI

MEDTECH startup eko.ai has raised US$4 million in a funding round co-led by Sequoia India and Singapore investment fund EDBI.

Partech Ventures, SGInnovate and Startup Health also participated in the funding round, the heart disease detection firm said on Tuesday in a press statement.

The funds will be used to grow eko.ai's development team and accelerate the firm's US and Europe commercial operations.

Eko.ai, founded in August 2017, has developed a machine learning platform which automates the process of measuring and interpreting echocardiograms or ultrasound images of the heart.

Its founders are James Hare, an investor and co-founder of travel company eDreams; Carolyn Lam, a senior consultant cardiologist at the National Heart Centre Singapore; and Yoran Hummel, founder and former general manager of the Groningen Imaging Core Laboratory of the University Medical Center Groningen.

The firm also has ongoing commercial and academic research collaborations with partners such as Astrazeneca, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Samsung Medical Center's Heart, Vascular and Stroke Institute, and the University of Alberta.

"Nurturing innovative home-grown companies in deep tech industries including healthcare remains a cornerstone of our investment priorities and together with like-minded investors, eko.ai will have a booster shot to transform medical diagnostic imaging and delivery of care to cardiovascular patients," said EDBI chief executive and president Chu Swee Yeok.