Polish med-tech Saventic Health raises US$ 2.2 million (PLN 10 million) and continues revolutionizing medical diagnostics
The Polish med-tech Saventic Health has developed and tested in practice artificial intelligence algorithms that support physicians in diagnosing rare (hidden) diseases. The company has just raised US$ 2.2 million (PLN 10 million) for further development, including international expansion. The leader of this financing round is Warsaw based 4growth VC fund with NCBiR Investment Fund as the co-investor.
Currently, Saventic Health focuses on the diagnosis of rare diseases in four areas: blood cancers, other haematological diseases, lysosomal storage diseases and immune disorders.
– The new funding round enables us to strengthen our value proposition for existing clients but also to create new algorithms in specialties such as cardiology, dermatology or nephrology. We are dynamically developing on the Polish market, and in the first half of this year, we are starting expansion into the international markets. The first priority will be Germany and the United States, i.e. markets already known to us, where we participate in acceleration programs or we are their laureates. The capital will allow us to further develop our clinical decision support services, including the detection of rare diseases for the purposes of clinical trials – says Szymon Piątkowski, one of the founders and CEO of Saventic Health.
Global market for clinical decision support systems is currently estimated at $ 2 billion and is growing at a rate of 25-30% annually. It is one of the fastest growing markets in the healthcare sector. This increase is stimulated by benefits for patients, medical service providers and other stakeholders. The benefits include: faster diagnosis and better quality of service, lower costs of diagnostics and treatment, facilitating doctors’ work and limiting errors in the form of missing or incorrect diagnosis.
As of today, Saventic Health has developed over 30 algorithms that have analysed the clinical data of nearly 1 million patients. The company co-operates with over 20 medical centres. This resulted in a number of identified patients, which is a real breakthrough in diagnosing rare diseases.
– Our mission is to create comprehensive solutions supporting the clinical decision-making system for primary care, ambulatory specialist care as well as hospitals. Today, many people remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for years. It takes an average of 5 years from the onset of the first symptoms to diagnose a rare-disease patient . Moreover, it is estimated that only 1 in 8 patients are diagnosed and duly treated. We want to accelerate and increase the effectiveness of diagnostics due to the use of artificial intelligence – declares prof. Grzegorz Basak, the second founder, vice president and Chief Medical Officer of Saventic Health.
The system is an advanced analytical tool equipped with the most modern artificial intelligence solutions, implemented with medical knowledge and historical data from approximately 320 million records for over 3 million patients. This solution can be integrated directly with existing IT systems on a “plug and play” basis.
Saventic Health provides medical institutions with all the necessary applications, tools and algorithms through its proprietary platform called SARAH. The platform analyses fully anonymised EHRs and provides doctors with information about the risk of a rare disease, along with rationale and recommendation.
– Our cooperation with Saventic Health is an excellent example of an investment in a technology company with the potential to make a breakthrough in an area involving millions of people around the world. As part of our investment strategy, we want to continue supporting prospective companies of this type, from Poland and the CEE region, thus expanding our portfolio beyond the financial and insurance sectors in which we specialize – says Tomasz Biłous, managing partner of the 4growth VC fund, who saw the company’s growth potential.
– From our perspective, an investment in a company, whose products combine the modern world of medicine with the latest digital technology, is an extremely interesting and future-proof. Saventic Health software that uses artificial intelligence to diagnose rare diseases and allows to improve the diagnosis of patients, is an excellent example of such a company. It is worth mentioning that the company has already received funding from the National Center for Research and Development under the so-called “Fast track” program, so the entry of our VC fund at the next stage of Saventic Health development is a natural path of financing, as the part of our complementary investment instruments of NCBiR group – says Krzysztof Szubert, president of the board of NCBiR Investment Fund.
According to the European Commission, any disease that affects no more than 5 people in 10,000 can be considered as rare. In practice, 5-8 thousand rare diseases affect 6-8% of the population, i.e. approx. 27-36 million people in the European Union on stand-alone basis.
Saventic Health started operating in 2019. The team of over twenty people consists mainly of doctors, IT and data science specialists. The company is headed by its founders: Szymon Piątkowski, CEO and prof. Grzegorz Basak, CMO.
