K-SkAI, a startup developing an AI-enabled predictive analytics solution for healthcare, has raised 130 million rubles (around $1.8 million at the current exchange rate).
Company representative Anna Guseva told East-West Digital News that the funding came from Russian individual investors, including Spartak Zabolotsky and other unnamed ones. She did not disclose further details of the deal.
The startup never raised money before, she added: since its inception in 2018, K-SkAI had been funded by its founders Roman Novitsky and Alexander Gusev.
K-SkAI touts its solution, dubbed ‘Webiomed,’ as a “reliable clinical decision support system (CDSS) to identify high-risk patients,” with the goal of “preventing diseases.”
The solution is not only intended for clinicians, who may “reduce the number of medical errors” as well as the time required for EHR analysis and personal prevention recommendations. It may also be used by:
- Healthcare managers, for the purpose of “identifying and monitoring high-risk patients” in an epidemiological perspective;
- Pharmaceutical companies, to “improve the work efficiency of scientists and researchers,” including when they aim to identify “unknown predictors in de-identified medical data;”
- Insurance companies, to “identify [individuals] at high risk of disease, disability, or treatment in medical organizations,” and potentially “reduce patient care and medical coverage.”
Located in Karelia, a North-Western Russian region bordering Finland, K-SkAI is also resident of Skolkovo, the international tech hub nearing completion on the outskirts of Moscow.
Since its launch two years ago, the startup has been distinguished at several Russian and international contests – including the prestigious AstraZeneca Skolkovo StartUp Challenge 2020.
K-SkAI’s current international plans include product localization and certification, as well as pilots to be launched in different European and Asian countries.
“We do not have any international partners yet now but we do intend to develop such partnerships,” Guseva told EWDN.
Among the company’s competitors on the global healthcare predictive analytics market are Medial EarlySign (Israel), Infermedica (Poland) and Health Fidelity (USA).
According to data from ReportsAndData cited by Guseva, this market was estimated at some $2.9 billion in 2018. With an annual growth of nearly 29%, this market could reach more than $84 billion by 2027, according to Meticulous Research.
