What happened

This morning digital pathology startup Proscia announced that it closed a $8.3 million Series A funding round. The financing was led by Flybridge Capital Partners with participation from Emerald Development Managers, Fusion Fund, Razor’s Edge Ventures and RobinHood Ventures. 

The impact

The Philadelphia-base startup plans to use the new money to commercialize its digital pathology software and speed up the use of its AI applications for cancer diagnosis. Additionally, the new funding will finance the development of an AI workflow tool, that will focus on high impact cancers. 

The company has previously rolled out a cloud-based digital pathology platform, which enables hospitals create new image-based workflows to streamline operations, open new imagining and analytics revenue streams, and aid diagnostics. The plan is for the new AI applications to be built on top of this platform. 

The trend 

The use of AI in diagnosis has been on the rise. In April the FDA granted IDx the first De Novo clearance for an AI-based diagnostic system. This De Novo was for the IDx-DR, an AI-based software system for the autonomous detection of diabetic retinopathy in adults who have diabetes. 

But it isn’t just the industry that has taken notice of the rise in AI. In May, the White House hosted a summit on AI for American Industry and specifically discussed the possibilities in healthcare. 

On the record 

“Digital pathology and artificial intelligence are unlocking new possibilities for pathologists in the fight against cancer,” David West, CEO at Proscia, said in a statement. “Pathology has been historically underserved by technology, and we believe that powerful software tools will push the boundaries of how modern pathology is practiced. That’s why this funding is so important. It will allow us to expand the adoption of digital pathology, while creating intelligent systems that will unlock data from tissue to greatly enhance pathologists’ productivity, increase access to care, and improve the way cancer is researched, diagnosed, and ultimately treated.”