INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
AI Medical Service, a Tokyo-based company developing AI-based software to help detect gastric cancer, announced today that it has raised a
Investors include Globis Capital Partners, World Innovation Lab and Sony Innovation Fund by IGV
The funding will be used for clinical trials of its software, which looks for signs of cancer in real-time during endoscopies, product
development and overseas expansion.This brings AI Medical Service’s total funding so far to $57 million, including a previous round of $9
million from the Incubate Fund in August 2018
Founded in 2017, the company’s software focuses on signs of cancer in gastrointestinal organs, including the esophagus, stomach and
intestines, with the goal of reducing the amount of hours doctors and other health professionals need to spend going over scans
AI Medical Service is currently collaborating with 80 medical institutions on joint research for regulatory approval of its products.Dr
Tomohiro Tada, CEO of AI Medical Service, told TechCrunch in an email that the world market for endoscopy is growing by 10% every year, with
Japanese manufacturers holding about a 70% market share
For its expansion strategy, Tada says the company will initially focus on other Asian countries, including Singapore, Thailand and
Indonesia, where there are high rates of stomach cancer
Then it will focus on the U.S
and Canada.Research shows that about 15% to 30% of lesions are missed during endoscopy procedures and the goal of AI Medical Service is to
increase the accuracy of scan results
Its first product, which uses a deep-learning convolutional neural network (CNN) to analyze medical images, will apply for regulatory
approval soon.There are other companies, including ai4gi, Olympus and Shanghai Wision AI, that are also working on AI-based endoscopy
technology, but Tada says AI Medical Service does not see them as competitors because it focuses specifically on AI detection of gastric
cancer, whereas ai4gi and Wision AI are developing software for colonscopies.In a prepared statement, Globis Capital Partners director
Satoshi Fukushima said, “We foresee an irreversible trend of doctors diagnosing cancer in collaboration with AI in the near future
Supported by the world’s leading medical institutions and specialists in the field and led by experienced management, the endoscopy AI
developed by AIM has huge potential to help endoscopists and patients globally.”
