Subtle Medical Secures $12.2M Series A Funding to Accelerate Global Expansion

November 17, 2020 — Subtle Medical, a medical imaging software company, has just announced a new $12.2 million Series A financing round, led by the well-known biopharmaceutical-focused fund Bencao Capital, with participation from Fusion Fund (a healthcare AI investment fund), Data Collective, Delta Capital, Tsingyuan Ventures, and BV Baidu Venture Capital, among others.

Subtle Medical specializes in enhancing medical imaging quality and improving efficiency, offering the industry’s first AI-powered medical image enhancement software solution approved by the U.S. FDA and CE-certified in Europe. Its products, SubtleMR™ and SubtlePET™, have both received FDA clearance and CE marking, enabling healthcare institutions to improve image quality for routine and accelerated medical imaging examinations.

The healthcare sector represents the earliest and most extensively applied domain for AI technology. In clinical practice, superior image quality and more effective imaging techniques can enhance radiologists’ workflow efficiency and deliver a better patient experience.

Group photo of the Subtle Medical team at the 2019 RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) Annual Meeting. From right to left, the third, fourth, and sixth individuals are Dr. Nanjie Gong, Co-founder of Subtle Medical; Dr. Enhao Gong, Founder and CEO; and Professor Greg Zaharchuk, Co-founder.

“Deepwise Healthcare represents a new generation of AI-driven medical imaging. In a short period, Deepwise has been proven to have had a profound impact on the radiology community; its medical image enhancement services are effective and timely, delivering significant value in improving patient care and enhancing the service capabilities of healthcare institutions. This was particularly evident during the pandemic.” Bencao Capital, the lead investor in this round, stated, “This team is ambitious and full of potential, and we believe our partnership will help accelerate their growth.”

Subtle Medical stated that it will leverage the new round of financing to accelerate market expansion and meet consumer demand. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, healthcare institutions have faced a surge in demand for medical imaging scans and require more flexible solutions to ensure safe scanning procedures, leading to a significant increase in demand for Subtle Medical’s medical image enhancement services across various markets. Several European investors also participated in this funding round, including the UK-based Crista Galli Ventures and Spain’s Nina Capital.

Shentou Medical has deployed its solutions in dozens of healthcare institutions across the United States and the European Union, leveraging AI to enhance the efficiency, quality, and safety of MR and PET-CT examinations. These deployments include partnerships with RadNet, the largest third-party imaging network in the U.S., and Affidea, the leading medical imaging service provider in Europe.

Recently, Affidea collaborated with DeepWise Medical to publish a paper in the top-tier journal of molecular imaging, EJNMMI (European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging). The paper presents the analysis results of the industry’s first multi-center clinical AI study focused on image enhancement software, further validating the robustness, clinical value, and economic impact of DeepWise Medical’s AI algorithms in healthcare technology using extensive real-world clinical data. In the newly released issue of the globally renowned medical journal The Lancet, prominent American clinical expert Professor Eric Topol also published a special article discussing the applications of AI in improving clinical image quality, efficiency, and resolution, highlighting several research efforts by DeepWise Medical and the Stanford team.

Furthermore, the new financing will help Subtle Medical expand its strategic partnerships and continue to research and develop its robust product portfolio, which includes SubtleGAD™—a solution that enhances image quality and reduces gadolinium dosage in contrast-enhanced MRI—as well as multiple applications empowering imaging for interventional procedures and pharmaceutical R&D.

It is reported that Subtle Medical is currently collaborating on technology with imaging equipment manufacturers such as GE HealthCare, Siemens Healthineers, and Neusoft Medical, as well as with numerous pharmaceutical companies. Recently, as a close partner, it was invited to participate in the Philips Healthcare Greater China Developer Conference.

“Our mission is to provide patients with better, safer, and more comfortable medical imaging, while creating new workflow efficiencies for hospitals and imaging centers. Meanwhile, our technology has been proven to empower medical devices and optimize imaging processes in pharmaceutical clinical trials. The financial support and domain expertise of Bencao Capital in the healthcare and biopharmaceutical sectors will help us achieve our vision faster and more broadly,” said Dr. Gong Enhao, Founder and CEO of Subtle Medical.

It is reported that Bencao Capital primarily focuses on investing in innovative pharmaceuticals, as well as cross-disciplinary innovative medical devices and diagnostic technologies. Its core founding team consists entirely of PhD holders in biomedical fields from overseas universities, bringing years of practical experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, along with over a decade of successful investment and entrepreneurial experience both domestically and internationally. To date, the firm has cumulatively invested in and incubated more than 40 innovative healthcare enterprises in China and abroad.

Founded at Stanford University in 2017, Deepwise Medical was established by a founding team comprising radiologists and experts in medical imaging and artificial intelligence from institutions such as Stanford University, Tsinghua University, and General Electric. Previous seed-round investors included Data Collective, Bessemer Venture Partners, Breyer Capital, ZhenFund, BV Baidu Ventures, and Fusion Fund, all of whom have continued to increase their investments in this Series A financing round.

Subtle Medical is a medical technology company that provides a comprehensive suite of deep learning solutions to enhance workflow efficiency and patient experience. Subtle Medical offers SubtlePET™ and SubtleMR™, the first FDA-approved AI software solutions for medical image enhancement.

In 2020, Subtle Medical was selected by CB Insights as one of the Global AI 100 and Digital Health 150. Also in 2020, Subtle Medical won the First Prize in Artificial Intelligence at the 3rd China Medical Device Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and received the Third Prize at the HICOOL Global Entrepreneurs Summit and Startup Competition. In the 2019 Alibaba HSBC JumpStarter program, Subtle Medical won the Shanghai Division Championship and the “Most Popular Project Among Investors” award. In 2018, Subtle Medical stood out from more than 3,000 companies to win the NVIDIA AI Healthcare Award.

Subtle Medical has established cutting-edge collaborations and commercial implementations with dozens of leading medical schools, hospitals, and third-party imaging centers worldwide. Its current international clinical partners include UCSF, Hoag Hospital, UCSD, MD Anderson Cancer Center, RadNet, Middlesex Hospital, SickKids Hospital in Canada, and the DASA Group in South America. In China, Subtle Medical’s clinical collaborations cover top-tier hospitals such as Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai East Hospital, and Shanghai Changhai Hospital. The company also engages in joint AI and medical imaging technology development with renowned enterprises including NVIDIA, Intel, GE Healthcare, Neusoft Medical, Philips China, and Siemens Healthineers.