Presymptom Health, a startup using AI for the early detection of infections and sepsis, has raised £1.5m in equity and grant funding.
Presymptom Health was founded in 2019 to combat the significant risk to life posed by the late diagnosis of sepsis. According to the UK Sepsis Trust, the condition – an extreme bodily response to infection – kills around 48,000 people in Britain annually.
Sepsis is particularly deadly in cases of delayed diagnosis. Presymptom Health said that for every hour of untreated sepsis, the likelihood of death increases by 10%, despite the condition being highly treatable at an early stage.
Presymptom Health’s technology uses machine learning and AI analytics to extract insights from a vast biobank. The startup said analytics from these samples make the detection of infections and sepsis much quicker.
“By understanding the presence, or absence, of infection as early as possible, doctors can be more confident in their diagnosis and avoid unnecessarily prescribing antibiotics, said Dr Iain Miller, CEO of Presymptom Health.
“If we take Sepsis as an example. Sepsis diagnostics hasn’t moved on in more than a century, and currently, doctors can only diagnose it when advanced symptoms and organ failure are present – which is often too late.”
Miller said the startup’s technology means infection and sepsis can be detected up to “three days before formal clinical diagnosis”.
The funding round included investment from UKI2S, Ploughshare and MedTechToMarket. The startup also received grant funding from Innovate UK.
Being able to diagnose infection before someone shows signs of infection is a mind-blowing example of “tech for good” – and at a time when AI is under such huge scrutiny,” said Sakura Holloway, investment director at UKI2S.
“Here we have an incredible example of a “lab to life” journey that people don’t see so much.”
The UKI2S fund is managed by Future Planet Capital, a VC firm that has backed companies such as Pragmatic and Nuclera.
The post Presymptom Health raises £1.5m for AI sepsis diagnostics appeared first on UKTN.
