Australian-based healthcare artificial intelligence specialist Harrison.ai has successfully completed a maiden capital raise of $29 million, one of the country’s largest capital raises in 2019.
Harrison.ai, has also successfully implemented a strategic joint venture with Australian medical imaging service provider I-MED Radiology Network. I-MED is owned by the global investment firm Permira, which has more than €33 bilion under management and backed more than 250 businesses worldwide.
Dr Aengus Tran, CEO and Co-Founder of Harrison.ai, said the joint venture combines the two, world-leading developers of prediction engines for key imaging applications such as X-ray, mammography and CT to assist radiologists to efficiently and accurately diagnose diseases and injuries.
A key part of our strategy moving forward is to collaborate with such organisations to develop AI as a medical device solutions that improve efficiency, accuracy and safety, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes. This presents an immense opportunity for technology development and global distribution”, Dr Tran said.
Harrison.ai was advised by Squire Patton Boggs in the captital raising and JV, while the capital raise was led by Blackbird Ventures and joined by Horizons Ventures, Skip Capital, Ramsay Health Care and Founders Fund.
Dimitry Tran, Co-Founder of Harrison.ai, said Squire Patton Boggs made a huge effort to help complete a complex joint venture and capital raise within a tight timeframe and in a cost-efficient manner.
“Lead Partner, Hai-Dang Nguyen, brought together a team of Australian and US lawyers of the highest calibre with the technical knowledge, industry experience and know-how to provide the incisive legal advice that we required. We were particularly impressed with their strategic, commercial and pragmatic approach to problem solving. We appreciate their strong commitment, responsiveness and dedication to successfully closing these complex transactions.”
Mr Nguyen said the company’s involvement in the transactions was multi-faceted.
“We were pleased to be able to apply our wide-ranging specialist expertise to assist in spring-boarding Harrison.ai into a promising future. We would like to congratulate Harrison.ai on their impressive achievements and look forward to providing continued global firm support for their business ventures.”
Harrison.ai has developed, validated and deployed IVY’s AI technology to predict the likelihood of pregnancy from analysing embryo videos. IVY is a patent-pending technology that has received Therapeutic Goods of Australia (TGA) clearance. IVY is used every day and has increased the clinical pregnancy success rate in IVF-treatment by over 30% (the success rate of an average embryologist selecting a successful embryo is around 65% whereas the discriminative power of Harrison.ai’s IVY is 93%).
The company said it will use the funding to grow its world-class team with new hires in the field of data science and software engineering, as well as those with clinical and medical device backgrounds. It will also develop new applications in areas where AI technologies are ready to make an impact such as radiology, pathology, and hospital operation.