Oxford Immune Algorithmics Secures £5.1m To Advance Remote Health Monitoring And Precision Medicine
Drawing on more than a decade of research in computational biology and systems medicine conducted at institutions such as the the University of Oxford, and the Karolinska Institute, and on their experience in industry, Dr. Hector Zenil and Dr. Jürgen Riedel set out to develop Algocyte with the help of an exceptional team that believed in the company’s mission and could support it over the years. Most of the original team stuck around, and has witnessed a series of successful events including this last fundraising round involving a great team of investors fully aligned with the founders’ vision.
Algocyte is a platform for remote health monitoring and pre-diagnosis based on model-driven AI able to tell apart cause from effect with features that range from patient triaging using smart adaptive risk assessment scores to providing robust predictions based on perturbation analysis by learning from the user’s own health behaviour over time. Algocyte delivers on the promise of precision medicine and has the potential to help transform healthcare from cost-effective to value-based patient-centric care freeing clinicians to devote more quality time to patients, who themselves will be able to participate more actively in their own care.
The funding round was led by Toronto-based Medtech AI Ltd, a group of high-profile North American investors based in Canada and the U.S. specialising in medical devices, finance, and energy, but also including high-profile investors in software area.
“Already in a position to demonstrate the technology, we are confident that cost-effective and radically new ways brought by OIA will open up huge growth opportunities for medicine and healthcare around the world.”
John Cullen, CEO of Medtech AI
SFC Capital, which invested in OIA last year, joined this new round with a follow-up showing great confidence in the company’s team, vision and progress during the last year despite the pandemic.
“In a world devastated by the recent pandemic, the need for remote immune monitoring systems is more apparent. The team at OIA has the credentials, industry experience and skills set to drive this transformation forward. We have been involved in the company for the past year and since our initial investment we have been very much impressed by the development to date and are looking forward to OIA transforming medicine and changing healthcare”
Rohallah Ghasemi, Investment Executive, SFC Capital
Placing augmented health data in people’s hands without compromising it, but rather promoting stronger bonds between patients and physicians
Joining the company as the board Chairwoman is Pamela Winsor, who was OIA’s mentor at the prestigious and highly-competitive Creative Destruction Lab, an accelerating programme based in its U.S. American branch. OIA was one of only 20 stat-up applications selected out of a total of 400, and one of only 3 remaining by the end of the Recovery programme held in Atlanta U.S., a programme designed by CDL to support start-ups helping the world bounce back from the pandemic.
Pamela is the former CMO of Medtronic Canada. Medtronic is the largest medical devices company in the world. Pam brings a lot of credibility to OIA’s mission and more than 25 years of experience as a visionary in value-based healthcare and precision medicine.
“The future of healthcare is here and we are excited to be partnering with the outstanding Oxford Immune Algorithmics (OIA) team to ensure that this ‘at home’ AI driven, value-based diagnostic solution is well positioned and accessible to all. Personalized and precision medicine is here!”
Pamela Winsor, incoming Chairwoman of OIA’s Board
The funds will be used to continue R&D, establish a low-volume production facility, generate robust data for regulatory purposes, increase protectable IP, accelerate compliance and expand the team this year from its current 20 part-time to around 30 full-time top talent employees in order to achieve OIA’s ambitious goals, while bringing current team members currently spread all over the world to work out of OIA’s offices in the U.K. and the U.A.E. For this, OIA has contracted Vivid Technologies as its recruitment arm.
Medtech is also planning to follow up in future rounds, as needed, to help OIA raise the funds to go to market in the U.K., Europe, Canada, the U.S., and globally.
