Subtle Medical Secures Nearly $10 Million in Series B+ Funding, Achieves Triple-Digit Annual Revenue Growth for Three Consecutive Years

On May 13, renowned AI medical imaging company Subtle Medical, Inc. announced the closing of its Series B+ financing round, raising nearly $10 million and bringing its total funding to over $50 million. The round saw participation from existing investors, including Fusion Fund, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm focused on deep-tech companies, as well as new investors such as ENVISIONX Capital, a U.S. dollar fund based in Silicon Valley; Bluerun Ventures’ Silicon Valley headquarters fund; Shanghai Wenzhou Capital Co., Ltd.; and other strategic partners in the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently, Subtle Medical has developed AI products covering all modalities of medical imaging, leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies and generative models to accelerate MRI, PET, and other medical imaging examinations. The company has achieved doubled business revenue for three consecutive years and is projected to surpass RMB 100 million in global annual revenue this year.

This funding round will be used to accelerate global commercial deployment and drive innovation in product research and development. DeepWise Medical has multiple product pipelines under development. Its overseas AI-based image quality control product, SubtleReformat (marketed in China as SupReformat), recently received approval from the U.S. FDA, marking the official commencement of its clinical AI implementation.

 SubtleReformat, an Overseas AI Product for Imaging Quality Control, Recently Received FDA Approval

Previously, Subtle Medical’s global orders surpassed the 100-million mark. As a leader in the AI medical imaging niche, it has been deployed in more than 600 renowned hospitals and imaging centers across China, the United States, Europe, and other regions, enhancing the efficiency and safety of medical imaging.

In addition to providing AI solutions for hospitals and medical imaging diagnostic centers and building an AI medical imaging platform, DeepWise collaborates with leading global pharmaceutical manufacturers to apply its proprietary deep learning technologies to enhance the efficacy of imaging contrast agents. It also partners with top-tier domestic and international medical imaging equipment manufacturers to further leverage AI in improving device performance. By driving AI advancements across the service, pharmaceutical, and equipment sectors, DeepWise is comprehensively accelerating the AI transformation of the medical imaging industry.

With the new round of capital injection, its global commercialization pace will further accelerate.

As medicine advances toward precision therapy, enhancing the quality and efficiency of medical imaging examinations to achieve high-quality development has become a global challenge. The AI medical imaging market alone is projected to exceed $10 billion.

Subtle Medical is one of the earliest companies to apply generative AI to the healthcare sector, leveraging AI technology to transform the existing market and help hospitals and imaging centers reduce costs while improving efficiency.

“Leveraging advanced AI technology and precise commercial implementation, with a focus on optimizing and enhancing the efficiency of medical imaging data, Subtle Medical has provided a unique AI medical imaging solution. After years of dedication, it has established an AI platform with strong user stickiness. Currently, Subtle Medical is the AI imaging company with the fastest commercial implementation globally, which aligns perfectly with our investment strategy at Jiajia Capital. Following this financing round, we also look forward to leveraging Jiajia’s global resource pool to assist them in further expanding their market,” said Holly Zheng Hong, Founding Partner of Jiajia Capital.

Since 2016, Dr. Enhao Gong, founder of Subtle Medical, and Professor Greg Zaharchuk, as the world’s earliest scientists to apply deep learning to medical image generation, have pioneered the use of AI technology to accelerate MRI and PET imaging processes by 4–10 times while ensuring diagnostic-level accuracy; they have also leveraged AI to enhance MRI images and reduce contrast agent usage by tenfold.

Since its founding in 2017, Subtle Medical has secured exclusive licensing of related technological intellectual property from Stanford University and established collaborations with world-leading hospitals such as UCSF and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Its flagship products, SupPET™ and SupMR™, are among the first AI-based medical imaging solutions to receive triple certification from the U.S. FDA, the European Union CE (MDR), and China’s NMPA.

Comparison of MRI Images Before and After Applying SupMR™

Subsequently, DeepIntel Medical continued to expand its product line, leveraging the AI platform SupAI™ to provide multi-modal medical imaging services.

As markets in China, the United States, and Europe continue to expand, Subtle Medical’s sales have doubled for three consecutive years.

In China, Subtle Medical has achieved clinical implementation in nearly 200 hospitals, imaging centers, and health check-up centers. Its partners include many of China’s leading hospitals, health check-up providers, and premium medical imaging service groups, such as Shanghai Huashan Hospital, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, as well as domestic imaging groups like Meinian Onehealth Healthcare, Yimai Yangguang, and Panview Medical. Domestic clinical applications are deployed on-premises to ensure that data remains within hospital premises, thereby providing optimal AI-enhanced imaging solutions for both healthcare institutions and patients.

In the United States, Subtle Medical has established partnerships with over 300 leading medical institutions, hospitals, and third-party imaging centers, including Stanford University, UCSF, MD Anderson Cancer Center, RadNet, Mayo Clinic, and Mount Sinai Hospital. Its primary global business operations are driven by a SaaS model featuring hospital-based recurring payments, pay-per-case pricing, and enterprise subscriptions.

In addition to its partnerships in China and the United States, Subtle Medical has also secured multiple key partners in Europe, further strengthening its global deployment across Asia, the Americas, and Europe.

Years ago, Subtle Medical’s products already obtained CE certification in Europe and were clinically deployed in multiple medical centers across the continent, with dozens of healthcare institutions in France alone adopting them. In 2019, Subtle Medical entered into a cooperation agreement with Affidea, the European imaging center alliance. By July 2022, its products had been introduced into the imaging centers of Unilabs, a European diagnostic service provider. In 2024, Subtle Medical upgraded its products, secured the latest and more stringent EU MDR certification, and further expanded commercial implementation in countries including France, Germany, and Spain.

As the sole Chinese enterprise, Subtle Medical was named to CB Insights’ Global Top 50 Generative AI Companies in 2023 alongside giants such as OpenAI, recognized for its technological innovation and pioneering implementation in AI medical imaging.

Its global leadership in commercial deployment stems from both its AI platform, which continuously expands based on AI technology to address critical clinical needs and enhance the value of paid subscriptions for customers, and its business model innovations in AI-driven data generation, such as collaborations with pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers.

From the perspective of AI platforms, the SupAI™ platform now covers imaging modalities such as MRI, PET, CT, SPECT, and interventional surgical angiography.

These include:

● AI-powered medical imaging enhancement products such as SupPET and SupMRI, which improve image quality and reduce examination time;

● Products such as SupGAD and SupBoost reduce the required tracer dosage for medical imaging, optimize image enhancement, and improve safety and lesion detection capabilities;

● Products such as SupSynth leverage the latest AI generation technologies, utilizing multimodal and multi-contrast data to further enhance the quality and efficiency of medical imaging;

● SupQC and other quality control, intelligent assessment, and workflow analysis platforms have recently received FDA approval and will be more comprehensively launched and promoted by the end of the year, providing clinical customers with one-stop workflow quality control and efficiency enhancement services.

Dr. Gong Enhao, founder of DeepWisdom Medical, stated, “Since our inception, our comprehensive product portfolio has driven strong customer retention and high repurchase rates. Meanwhile, our cloud-based processing platforms in Europe and the United States have provided access to large volumes of high-quality medical imaging data, continuously strengthening our advantages in training deep learning algorithms and leveraging data assets, thereby facilitating ongoing product optimization, refinement, and iterative upgrades.”

Currently, DeepWise Medical’s solutions have established closed-loop workflows in many areas. For instance, they can provide real-time feedback during image acquisition and optimize the imaging process by adjusting acquisition parameters through clinical deployment, thereby achieving a closed loop for optimized image acquisition.

Gong Enhao stated, “Innovation is our DNA. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of medical imaging technology to provide healthcare professionals with higher-quality and more streamlined workflows. Our artificial intelligence solutions are driving a transformation in the quality and efficiency of medical imaging. In this process, we have also clarified payment models and sustainable revenue streams, thereby facilitating the commercial implementation of medical AI.”

This mission is also reflected in Subtle Medical’s patent progress and cutting-edge research outcomes: Since 2017, Subtle Medical has secured nearly 30 international patents, which have been successively granted in China, the United States, Europe, South Korea, Japan, and other countries worldwide. The company has also published more than 20 papers in top-tier journals such as Nature Digital Medicine and Radiology, presenting results from multiple multicenter clinical validations.

At the 32nd Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), held in Singapore from May 4 to 9, DeepIntelliMed presented its latest eight MRI research findings in the form of oral presentations. The selection of DeepIntelliMed’s research by ISMRM, a premier international society, underscores the recognition of the company’s scientific perspective and achievements by global experts and scholars, as well as an affirmation of the clinical value of DeepIntelliMed’s products.

ShenZhi TouYi ISMRM 2024 Research Sharing Schedule

As mentioned above, in addition to its AI platform, Subtle Medical is also exploring new business models based on its patented AI technologies through collaborations with pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers.

First, by collaborating with pharmaceutical manufacturers to significantly enhance the safety, accuracy, and imaging capabilities of drug products, Subtle Medical’s intelligent upgrades can substantially optimize the R&D investment and time-to-market cycle for new drugs.

For instance, last September, Shenzhen Zhitou Medical announced the formal signing of a cooperation agreement with Bracco Imaging, the global leader in diagnostic imaging contrast agents, to jointly explore AI applications in the MRI field, aiming to enhance the precision of contrast-enhanced MRI medical imaging, improve diagnostic outcomes, and optimize patient experience.

Specifically, with the same dosage of contrast agent, DeepWise AI’s technology can amplify the efficacy of pharmaceutical products by providing more precise and effective medical imaging data, thereby improving diagnostic accuracy. It also effectively expands the population eligible for contrast-enhanced imaging examinations, facilitating earlier and more comprehensive disease detection and diagnosis.

Previously, Subtle Medical entered into a global partnership with Bayer Pharmaceuticals to co-develop a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent under the SupGAD brand, which has currently entered Phase III clinical trials. Subtle Medical’s AI solutions enhance the efficacy of contrast agents, enabling safer and more efficient contrast-enhanced MRI scans, optimizing low-dose contrast administration, and ensuring the delivery of standardized medical images.

Furthermore, DeepWise Medical has established collaborations with Avid (a subsidiary of Eli Lilly), Telix, and multiple other radiopharmaceutical manufacturers both in China and abroad. These partnerships aim to continuously expand applications from a pharmaceutical perspective, leveraging its multimodal AI platform and product portfolio to more efficiently acquire high-quality imaging data, biomarker features, and other critical information.

Secondly, the company has partnered with equipment manufacturers such as Siemens to explore a collaboration model for the pre-installation of AI software on medical imaging devices. As early as 2021, Shenzhitouyi reached an agreement with Siemens to empower imaging equipment with AI capabilities through factory-installed MRI systems. At the time of the announcement, Shenzhitouyi was the sole AI image processing partner in Siemens’ OpenRecon image reconstruction pipeline. Furthermore, at the 2022 China International Import Expo (CIIE), it collaborated with Siemens Healthineers China to propose a plan aimed at deepening local innovation and implementing domestically produced intelligent technologies.

Late last year, Siemens Healthineers once again officially announced an acceleration of its in-depth collaboration with Subtle Medical. The two companies have renewed their partnership on the latest MR (Magnetic Resonance) imaging systems and high-end PET/MR scanners, integrating AI-enhanced features to further improve scan quality and efficiency.

It is reported that Subtle Medical is currently accelerating its collaborations with healthcare institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and equipment manufacturers worldwide. By leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence and generative AI technologies to empower the entire medical imaging value chain, Subtle Medical’s leading position in the global AI medical imaging sector is expected to become even more pronounced.