The University of Utah spinout is using deep learning technology to power image analysis in pathology.
Techcyte, a US-based healthcare technology spinout of University of Utah, closed a $4.3m series A round yesterday that included undisclosed strategic partners and unnamed employees.
A range of existing shareholders also participated in the round. Techcyte has not named investors in its $1.7m seed round, raised in 2016.
Founded in 2013, Techcyte has developed a digital pathology platform that uses deep learning technology to analyse and store medical images. The platform has applications in research, human and veterinary diagnostics, air quality testing and pharmaceutical development.
The company also hopes to introduce algorithms to classify blood, ova and parasites, cervical mucus and mould spores. The algorithms have been fed with the data of thousands of annotated images.
Techcyte’s technology is based on research by Mohamed Salama, professor of pathology, chief of haematopathology and director of the Haematopathology Fellowship Program at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
The money will go towards clinical testing for regulatory approval in the US and towards accelerated sales efforts to veterinary, human and air quality labs in the US and internationally. Techcyte expanded into Europe in March 2017, opening regional headquarters in Luxembourg.
Ralph Yarro, chief executive Techcyte, said, “Over the past year, Techcyte established key technical and distributional relationships around the world. This round will enable us to deliver the Techcyte deep learning software-as-a-service platform to partners in the United States, Europe, China and Latin America.”
