CorVista Health Secures Nearly $100M in Funding to Advance Non-Invasive AI-Powered Cardiovascular Diagnostics

Recently, cardiovascular AI R&D company CorVista Health announced the completion of a $65 million Series C financing round, bringing its total funding to nearly $100 million.

CorVista Health is the U.S. subsidiary of Analytics 4 Life (A4L), a Toronto-based company. Since its establishment in 2012, A4L has been dedicated to developing the CorVista System, an intelligent diagnostic system for cardiovascular diseases.

The company has launched the CorVista Analysis diagnostic information service webpage, offering analytical and diagnostic services for three cardiovascular conditions: coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure (HF), and pulmonary hypertension (PH). The successful completion of this financing round has directly accelerated the development and commercialization of two applications by CorVista Health.

CorVista Health Product Line Schematic

Currently, applications of artificial intelligence in cardiac disease management are primarily concentrated in three areas: medical imaging, event prediction, and electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis. The CorVista system operates within the field of medical imaging, which exhibits the highest saturation of AI adoption among these three domains. How, then, has CorVista Health managed to distinguish itself and secure substantial funding?

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is a heart condition caused by the accumulation of plaque in the coronary arteries, leading to insufficient oxygenated blood supply. Patients with this condition may experience symptoms such as angina, arrhythmia, and even heart failure.

According to JLABS data, coronary heart disease affects approximately 15.5 million Americans and is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and worldwide. Current diagnostic methods for coronary heart disease still suffer from numerous drawbacks, including high costs, significant risks, and time-consuming procedures, as they require cardiac examinations such as CT scans, stress electrocardiograms, or coronary angiography.

Although coronary angiography is the gold standard for diagnosing coronary heart disease, more than 50% of patients undergoing this procedure have negative results for CAD.

To reduce such unnecessary diagnostic and treatment-related trauma and reshape existing testing pathways, CorVista launched the CorVista Initiative in January 2017. The initiative aims to develop non-invasive machine learning algorithms for coronary artery disease (CAD) diagnosis, integrating mathematics, physics, and machine learning to streamline the entire diagnostic process into just four steps.

Data Acquisition: The system platform utilizes a simple handheld digital instrument to directly scan and acquire signals emitted by the patient’s heart at rest, via a synchronized array of seven sensors.

Transmission: Signals will be automatically uploaded to the system's cloud-based secure database.

Analysis: Machine learning algorithms leverage billions of clinical data points derived from coronary artery images to perform complex computational analyses, generating unique images and cardiac models that highlight potential heart disease regions associated with coronary artery disease (CAD).

Delivery: The platform securely transmits test results to the respective physician’s profile, enabling the physician to leverage this information—along with the patient’s medical history, etiology, and symptoms—to determine further treatment.

The CorVista System Enables Rapid Four-Step Diagnosis. Image source: CorVista official website

With the aforementioned four-step testing method, clinicians can easily obtain test results during a single consultation, significantly reducing the burden on patients to undergo multiple separate tests, shortening patient visit times, and enabling them to receive appropriate treatment more rapidly.

The CorVista system is currently still in the clinical research and testing phase and has not yet entered the market. However, the core essence of this system’s technology lies in its ability to avoid the risks associated with traditional cardiac testing. The entire diagnostic process is non-invasive, involves zero radiation, and does not increase cardiac load. All computations are performed in the cloud, ensuring safety, speed, and convenience.

The CorVista System offers multiple advantages, including safety, speed, and digitalization. Image source: CorVista official website

What kind of team stands behind the development of such a groundbreaking medical product, and what has its development journey been like?

To trace the development trajectory of CorVista Health, one must look back to its parent company, Analytics 4 Life. The company was founded in Canada by Sunny Gupta on January 1, 2012.

A4L Founder Sunny Gupta. Image source: Crunchbase official website

The founder and Chief Scientific Officer boasts an impressive pedigree. Sonny studied bioengineering, electrical engineering, and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley; earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto; and subsequently pursued graduate studies and a doctoral degree at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University.

Having previously worked at IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and the Canadian Department of National Defence, Sonny believes that passion for life stems from creating technologies with the potential to improve patient outcomes and even save lives. Leveraging his extensive and diverse background, Sonny founded A4L.

From the outset, several scientists at A4L recognized that applying machine learning to signals naturally generated by the human body could help identify disease patterns, thereby defining the company’s strategic direction. These scientists were determined to build an intelligent digital health company dedicated to developing non-invasive, low-cost medical devices.

A4L’s headquarters and the majority of its technology development are based in Toronto. In early 2015, A4L decided to expand its operations by establishing its U.S. subsidiary, CorVista Health, in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, which is responsible for corporate operations and hardware development.

On June 2, 2015, A4L secured its first round of venture capital funding, amounting to $1.8 million. Subsequently, with the support of the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform and the Centre of Excellence in Ontario, A4L conducted initial living laboratory studies on the CorVista system, analyzing and processing 2 billion data points. Early results indicated that machine learning algorithms could effectively detect heart disease.

On January 6, 2016, after A4L secured CAD 10 million in Series A financing from private investors, the company welcomed its new President and CEO, Don Crawford. An experienced executive in the medical device industry, Mr. Crawford founded and led Sapheon Inc., a cardiovascular medical device company that was acquired by Covidien for USD 238 million in 2014.

Don Crawford (left) and Greg Davis. Image source: CorVista official website

This CAD 10 million financing round enables A4L to continue advancing the first-in-human clinical trial of its new product in the field of cardiology, with the aim of meeting FDA regulatory requirements.

Furthermore, A4L has assembled a world-class management team by engaging Greg Davis, a senior executive at Medcelerate Consulting Group, to oversee operations and lead recruitment efforts, ensuring that the company’s products meet the stringent requirements of the highly regulated healthcare industry.

A4L also established a dedicated Medical Advisory Board, engaging several renowned experts in the U.S. healthcare sector. On May 23, 2018, A4L expanded the board by adding two global experts in cardiology and digital health. One of them is Professor Ge Junbo, an Academician of the Division of Life Sciences and Medicine at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Honorary President of the Chinese Society of Cardiology, and Director of the Department of Cardiology at Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University.

 A4L Medical Advisory Board Members. Image source: CorVista official website

CEO Crawford stated that Professor Ge’s profound understanding of China’s healthcare system will help advance A4L’s plans to launch its first clinical trial in China. As the company looks to introduce its AI-powered, cloud-based diagnostic imaging technology to resource-limited countries, the experience and insights of global experts are crucial.

As can be seen, the entire A4L team not only demonstrates exceptional professionalism, comprising outstanding engineers, technical specialists, medical officers, and business executives from the industry, but also engages medical experts who facilitate the promotion of overseas markets. Their extensive expertise and experience provide a robust guarantee for the company’s development.

In 2016, the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Centres of Excellence partnered with IBM to invest $54 million in establishing the IBM Innovation Centre, aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises accelerate technology adoption and global expansion. In September of the same year, A4L, as a flagship enterprise in this incentive program, became one of the first companies to occupy space at the IBM Innovation Space.

The new office space provides the company with high-quality technical resources, including IBM Cloud, IBM Watson cognitive business technologies, IBM SoftLayer, and the IBM Bluemix cloud development platform. This partnership equips A4L with a secure and scalable cloud infrastructure to better support the R&D efforts of its Agilytics machine intelligence platform team.

Chief Technology Officer Ian Shadforth stated that building cloud-based medical device products by leveraging IBM Cloud Services’ world-class suite could enable the company to rapidly achieve its product development goals. However, A4L did not stop there; it has consistently sought office spaces most conducive to the company’s growth.

On January 16, 2017, A4L announced its entry into JLABS@Toronto, a Johnson & Johnson Innovation lab dedicated to providing a flexible environment and high-quality platform for technological innovation by healthcare startups, with the aim of advancing healthcare standards.

The entrance to JLABS @ Toronto is located on the 13th floor of the MaRS Building in Toronto, Canada. Image source: JLABS official website

Johnson & Johnson Innovation does not hold equity stakes in companies housed within its incubator labs. Instead, it adopts a “no-strings-attached” model, allowing these companies the freedom to develop products independently or establish external collaborations separately with Johnson & Johnson Innovation or other partners, thereby granting enterprises significant autonomy in their innovation efforts.

It is precisely for this reason that A4L has been able to leverage abundant resources in cardiovascular medical device development and commercialization expertise, continuing to advance its initial product, the CorVista System, through clinical trials and achieve rapid growth in this “land of liberty.”

On September 27, 2017, A4L secured support from an international investor consortium, raising CAD 25 million in its Series B financing to advance its AI-powered cardiac imaging technology.

On December 11, 2017, A4L was named one of the “Top 15 Hottest MedTech Companies of 2017” by FierceMedTech. CEO Crawford stated, “We are proud to be a pioneer in cardiovascular medical imaging and diagnostic technology, and we look forward to working closely with the FDA to leverage this revolutionary technology to tangibly benefit patients with coronary artery disease.”

JLABS@Shanghai Image source: JLABS official website

On June 29, 2019, JLABS@Shanghai, the first Johnson & Johnson Innovation incubator in the Asia-Pacific region and the largest globally, was established in Shanghai, covering an area of 4,400 square meters. Leveraging this momentum, A4L also entered the Chinese market as a resident company at JLABS@Shanghai, with plans to build its business in the rapidly growing Chinese market, continue innovating, and push the boundaries of scientific research.

It is reported that, following the successful $65 million Series C financing, CorVista Health will accelerate product development of the CorVista System and scale up its infrastructure prior to commercialization.

Peter Townshend, Managing Member of Ambix Risk Management, LLC, the lead investor, stated, “CorVista Health has the potential to transform the way heart disease is diagnosed and managed. We are honored to support their mission to bring these solutions to the cardiovascular care sector.”

CEO Crawford also stated, “The need for point-of-care diagnostic models that provide rapid testing for cardiac patients has never been more urgent. We believe the CorVista system has the potential to transform the current healthcare landscape and improve the patient care experience.”