Amsterdam 20/02/2019- Aidence, a company that is bringing the full potential of Artificial Intelligence into the hands of medical professionals in medical imaging and disease detection, has completed a €10 million Series A funding round. The round was led by INKEF Capital and co-investor Rabo Ventures, alongside existing investors Northzone, HenQ and Health Innovations. This investment brings Aidence’s total funding to €12.5 million.
Aidence was founded in Amsterdam in 2015 by Mark-Jan Harte (CEO) and Jeroen van Duffelen (COO). Since then, the company has made waves in the medical imaging industry with its AI solution, Veye Chest. Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide and early detection is of great importance for survival. Aidence’s AI-enabled pulmonary nodule management assistant, Veye Chest, connects with existing imaging infrastructure and enables radiologists to better spot and track changes in pulmonary nodules. Veye Chest is already installed in more than 10 hospitals in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Scandinavia and processes hundreds of studies per week.
Aidence was selected for SBRI Healthcare last year, an NHS innovation initiative. Its health economics team recognised Veye Chest has potential to provide relief to the pressures in the radiologist workforce and reduce the number of missed lung cancers.
CEO Mark-Jan Harte says: “We’ve been determined since day one to deliver a tangible clinical AI solution that can be used by healthcare professionals to help their patients. We welcome INKEF and Rabo Ventures on our journey as we strive to shape the future of the medical imaging industry. With this funding we will continue building our European market expansion while also building towards FDA clearance giving us access to the US healthcare market. This investment will allow our research and development team to expand and explore new avenues for the Veye platform to support our radiologist AI pioneers and the patients they care for.”
Thijs Cohen Tervaert from INKEF comments: “We’ve followed Aidence for a number of years and are impressed by the team they’ve built and the progress they’ve made. Aidence has managed to cut through the hype surrounding AI and delivered a solution that fits into the workflow and helps radiologists do their work better. This is supported by the fact that the solution is being used in more than 10 hospitals and radiologists are using the software to improve care. The quality of the team, the technology and their vision for the future inspired us to lead this round of investment.”
“Mathijs Koens from Rabo Ventures comments: “With its practical AI solution for radiologists, Aidence fits very well with our ambition to contribute to improving the healthcare ecosystem and ultimately retaining affordable healthcare for all.”
To design Veye Chest, Aidence has assembled a stellar team of data scientists, software engineers and medical industry professionals. At the European Congress of Radiology, Europe’s largest radiology show in Vienna later this month, the world-renowned Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh hospital and the Edinburgh imaging facility QMRI will also present four abstracts as result of the collaboration on clinical validation for Veye Chest.
About Aidence
Amsterdam-based Aidence was founded in 2015 with the goal of improving medical diagnostics by applying deep learning. Its first product is Veye Chest, a solution for automated pulmonary nodule management on chest CT. For more information: https://aidence.com/
About INKEF
INKEF Capital is an Amsterdam-based venture capital firm that focuses on long-term collaboration and active support of innovative healthcare and technology companies. INKEF Capital was founded in 2010 by Dutch pension fund ABP and with €500 million under management it is one of the largest venture capital funds in the Netherlands. INKEF focuses on investment opportunities in Healthcare, Technology, IT/New Media & FinTech. For more information: http://www.INKEF.com
About Rabo Ventures
Rabo Ventures is part of Rabo Corporate Investments, the captive investment arm of Rabobank. Rabo Ventures invests seed and early growth capital in innovative companies in support to the mission of Rabobank: Growing a Better World Together. From Rabo Ventures, we are dedicated to fulfilling a supporting role and building value by leveraging Rabobank’s network, knowledge and position for the benefit of the companies we invest in the Netherlands (healthcare, sustainability, smart industries and food & agri) and globally (food & agri).”
