The firm’s EchoGo Core and EchoGo Pro platforms were built in partnership with the NHS

British HealthTech firm Ultromics has raised $33 million in a Series B funding round led by Blue Venture Fund.

The Oxford-based company develops AI-enabled cardiovascular diagnostic tools to help clinicians make more informed decisions when using ultrasound images.

Joining Blue Venture in the round were Optum Ventures, GV, and existing investor Oxford Sciences Innovation.

"Echocardiograms uploaded to the cloud and analyzed by artificial intelligence are set to revolutionize cardiac disease treatment pathways by helping more people understand their risk of heart disease earlier and with greater accuracy," said Dr. Ross Upton, CEO at Ultromics.

"This funding… will allow Ultromics to dramatically accelerate the use of AI-enhanced Echo into studies that currently use more expensive and less accurate imaging techniques."

Don’t go breaking my heart

Ultromics was founded in 2017 to develop an automated Software-as-a-Service platform that provides assessments of heart functions to support the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, heart failure, and amyloidosis.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the world, with an estimated 17.9 million deaths in 2019, according to World Health Organization.

The EchoGo Core uses machine learning to analyze echocardiograms and was approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2019.

The EchoGo Pro, Ultromics’ more advanced product, aims to achieve earlier detection of heart disease. It obtained a CE mark for use in Europe last year.

Both platforms were spun out of the University of Oxford and were built in partnership with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

The software is already being used by the likes of Mayo Clinic and the Oregon Health and Science University; the startup was working with several organizations at the onset of the pandemic, seeking to understand how COVID-19 attacks the heart.

Its Series B funding comes after it closed a $10m Series A round last June. Mayo Clinic was among the investors then, as were healthcare specialist Nina Capital.

"This Series B funding round will propel our company forward to a place that transforms disease pathways and saves more lives,” Dr. Upton added.