Berlin-based digital health company Ada Health has announced a $90 million (€74m) Series B funding investment led by Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer AG, which will support the company with its expertise in scientific innovation and consumer healthcare.

Other investors in the round include Samsung Catalyst Fund, Vitruvian Partners, Inteligo Bank, F4 and Mutschler Ventures. 

This funding will be used to further advance Ada’s symptom-assessment technology, grow the company’s position in the US, and accelerate Ada's growth in the area of personalised operating system for health. 

WHY IT MATTERS

The timely detection of diseases is one of the biggest challenges in guiding patients to appropriate care, with under-diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and long patient journeys to diagnosis and care presenting a challenge for healthcare systems.  

In addition, global healthcare systems are overburdened, with organisations required to meet pressures such as growing and ageing populations, emerging comorbidity requiring treatment, and the ongoing pandemic.

Ada aims to shorten the time to diagnosis by providing medical guidance that is actionable and will leverage personalised data insights to support the prediction and prevention of diseases.

“We are thrilled to have Leaps by Bayer as the lead investor particularly as our values are very much aligned with putting science and technology as well as a commitment to medical quality and user-centricity at the heart of everything we do.”

- Daniel Nathrath, CEO and co-founder of Ada Health

Ada Health has developed an AI-based health assessment and care navigation platform that helps users understand their symptoms, identify and differentiate conditions and then navigate to the right care. 

With over 23 million assessments completed since its global launch, Ada’s core technology is also available in a suite of AI-driven enterprise solutions. The company is collaborating with health systems, insurers, life sciences companies, and global non-profit organisations to integrate its symptom assessment and care navigation solutions into a range of digital care journeys to improve outcomes for patients.

In addition to today’s announcement, Bayer and Ada Health are in discussions about entering into a longer-term strategic partnership to support the company’s healthcare businesses.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

In November 2019, Ada Health launched a Swahili language version of its AI assessment app to provide relevant medical information to users and expand its services in East Africa.

This formed part of a global health initiative programme that said it would be working on a Swahili and Romanian language integration. At that time the organisation also announced a partnership with the Gates Foundation to assess the efficacy of its AI tech parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and India. 

ON THE RECORD

Daniel Nathrath, CEO and co-founder of Ada Health, said: “Today’s investment will help bring us closer to our goal of improving healthcare outcomes for more than 1 billion people around the world. We’re proud to have investors on board who truly believe in Ada’s technology and vision of transforming the way people access healthcare.

“We are thrilled to have Leaps by Bayer as the lead investor particularly as our values are very much aligned with putting science and technology as well as a commitment to medical quality and user-centricity at the heart of everything we do.”

Dr Jürgen Eckhardt, head of Leaps by Bayer, explained: “Investing in breakthrough technologies that drive digital change in healthcare is one of the strategic imperatives for Leaps by Bayer and for the entire field of healthcare.

“Ada’s truly transformative technology, combining powerful artificial intelligence with an emphasis on medical rigour and high levels of clinical accuracy will lead the way in helping more patients and consumers in achieving better health outcomes sooner by intervening earlier in their healthcare journey.”