Aware Super, Sydney-based ECP Asset Management and existing investor Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures have co-led a $US112 million ($179 million) Series C funding round for health tech company Harrison.ai.
Supporting investors in the round included new investors, the federal government funded National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC), Ord Minnett and Wollemi Capital Group as well as existing investors including Blackbird Ventures and Alpha JWC Ventures.
Sydney-based Harrison.ai uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse medical images − X-ray images, CT scans and pathology slides – triaging them for clinicians to view and drawing attention to anomolies. The company says its process helps clinicians detect and diagnose medical conditions faster and more accurately.
According to Harrison.ai, use of its technology will help to address a global shortage of skilled clinicians and surging demand for the use of medical imaging in healthcare systems in both developed and under-developed countries.
Harrison.ai co-founder and chief executive Dr Aengus Tran announced the new funding in Boston, Massachusetts, where the company has established an initial US presence.
Harrison.ai’s radiology software, Annalise.ai is now accessible to half the radiologists in Australia, is widely used in the UK and Hong Kong and was recently selected for use by the Danish public healthcare system.
The company plans to now focus on building its North American presence. Harrision.ai has received 12 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearances and a CT scan brain algorithm developed by the company has been granted FDA Breakthrough Device Designation which means it qualifies for US Medicare reimbursement.
Dr Tran said: “The growing demand for equitable and effective healthcare calls for advanced systems like AI to enhance human diagnostics and address disparities in access to care. Harrison.ai meets this need by developing clinical-grade AI models designed to improve capacity. We look forward to bringing our life-saving technology to healthcare systems in the US and continuing our expansion across the globe.”
Aware Super portfolio manager direct equities, Alvin Chan, said: “Harrison.ai’s ability to harness the rapidly evolving opportunities out of digitisation and AI is remarkable and we look forward to supporting their long-term application to the healthcare sector.”
Harrison.ai was founded in 2018 by Dr Aengus Tran and his brother Dimitry with a vision to use AI to revolutionise healthcare worldwide. In addition to being a medical doctor, Aengus is a a leading AI engineer. Dimitry is a healthcare technologist. The brothers grew up in Vietnam where they were taught coding by their father, coach of the country’s Maths Olympiad team. They came to Australia as teenagers to complete high school.
Harrison.ai’s first AI algorithm, IVY, was developed for IVF company Virtus health (ASX: VRT) to analyse video images to select embryos most suitable for implantation.
The project to resulted from a chance encounter. During his last year as a University of NSW medical student, Aengus attended a lecture on reproductive medicine at Sydney Children’s Hospital. The lecture was given by Dr Simon Cooke, head of science at Virtus Health. Following the lecture, he told Cooke he believed he could develop an algorithm to analyse video images of embryos.
After Virtus agreed to finance development of the technology, Aengus recruited his brother to form Harrison.ai. Dimitry, who had worked in finance and healthcare, was then head of innovation at Ramsay Health Care (ASX: RHC), a role in which he worked on establishing partnerships with global technology companies and healthcare start-ups.
In a large-scale pre-clinical trial, Harrison.ai’s IVY technology was shown to be highly accurate in identifying viable embryos. Working to develop an algorithm to analyse medical scans was a natural follow on from that success.
Image: A Harrison.ai analysed medical scan with a cursor alerting attention to an anomaly.