5Y News | AI Ultrasound Company Deepwise Technology Closes Nearly 100 Million Yuan Series B+ Round
The combination of AI software and portable ultrasound is set to transform the healthcare services industry.
AI ultrasound company Deepwise recently completed a nearly 100 million yuan Series B+ funding round led by 5Y Capital. The proceeds will be used to develop new R&D pipelines.
"We are very optimistic about the opportunity at the intersection of AI software and mobile ultrasound," said Xutian Jing, Managing Director at 5Y Capital. "This will bring enormous change to the healthcare services industry, and represents a typical scenario where medical AI can directly achieve commercial viability and a closed-loop business model. The combination of AI and portable ultrasound devices not only creates entirely new mobile diagnostic scenarios, but also improves the efficiency and convenience for medical professionals. Commercially, it enables a shift from traditional medical device sales to a new model. We believe Deepwise can continue to provide more convenient medical imaging diagnostic services to a broad customer base through sustained R&D investment in integrated hardware and software for medical devices."
Founded in December 2018, Deepwise completed six funding rounds in less than a year and a half after receiving its first investment in 2019 — an expansion pace few companies can match.
When Deepwise was established, the land grab in medical imaging AI was already in its second half. By 2019, emerging imaging companies had become scarce in the market. Rather than competing in the crowded radiology AI space, Deepwise chose the more challenging and less populated AI ultrasound market. As of 2021, companies in China focused on AI ultrasound application development remained few and far between.
Another advantage came from national policy recognition of AI. In the same month Deepwise was founded, the National Medical Products Administration released the application process for Class III AI devices. Six months later, the Artificial Intelligence Medical Device Innovation Cooperation Platform was established. By 2020, the first Class III AI device certificate was issued. At this point, Deepwise's ultrasound AI had already achieved notable results, placing it on par with other AI companies.
Beyond policy tailwinds, Deepwise needed thorough understanding of its chosen赛道. CEO Ruixing Zhu once noted: "AI ultrasound is a systematic engineering challenge. It's not simply a matter of having an algorithm and then doing diagnostic recognition. For example, if the platform is a handheld ultrasound, you need onboard chips and GPU-assisted computing. Algorithm design, IC design, chip selection, and power consumption all need to be considered."
As a company built on AI algorithms as its underlying technology platform, Deepwise possesses deep understanding of hardware platforms. This means the AI company can more thoroughly grasp the imaging process, usage patterns, and user needs — and leverage this information to build products that best fit market demands.
From the current use cases for AI ultrasound, handheld ultrasound at the grassroots level and hospital ultrasound departments represent the first scenarios where AI can add value. But the actual applications of ultrasound extend far beyond these.
Take anesthesiology as an example. POC ultrasound in anesthesia is mainly used for ultrasound-guided vascular puncture, nerve blocks, and intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), aimed at improving the safety of anesthesia procedures and the accuracy of organ function assessment. This differs from diagnostic ultrasound examinations for disease detection. The role of AI here includes trauma assessment, image registration/fusion, system quality assurance, scanning assistance, and Doppler noise suppression.
With support from other equipment, multimodal imaging for patient diagnosis allows ultrasound to play important roles in assessing tumor morphology and size, examining cerebrovascular function status, and determining the benign or malignant nature of nodules.
With this funding round, beyond enhancing the performance of existing pipelines, Deepwise will also attempt to develop new products beyond the clinical applications of ultrasound, more effectively meeting the needs of clinicians and allowing more patients to benefit from the efficiency gains that AI brings.
5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital) currently manages approximately $3 billion across USD and RMB dual-currency funds. We believe the world will be a better place when the crazy you that others see starts to be believed.
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