Astarte Medical Secures $3.5M in Additional Funding to Advance Commercialization of NICUtrition Platform for Premature Infant Care

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned from foreign media that on November 19, 2019, local time, Astarte Medical, a precision medicine company headquartered in Pennsylvania, USA, announced the completion of an additional $3.5 million in financing. The investors in this round were not disclosed.

The funds will be used to accelerate talent recruitment and advance the commercialization of NICUtrition Analytics and NICUtrition Guidance, complementary solutions to its preterm infant care software, NICUtrition. Additionally, Astarte Medical will allocate these funds to support R&D trials for its new product, NICUtrition MAGI, develop a health disparities research platform, and explore novel drug candidates.

According to Crunchbase, Astarte Medical has completed four rounds of funding since its inception. In May 2019, the company closed a $5 million Series A financing round, with investment from eight institutions including Viking Global Investors, Lunsford Capital, and OCA Ventures.

Astarte Medical was founded by Tracy Warren, an entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in the healthcare sector. The company is the first to focus on health outcomes during the first 1,000 days after birth, dedicated to developing a technology platform to address the medical needs of patients with high-risk pregnancies and preterm infants.

It is reported that more than 380,000 preterm infants are born in the United States each year. The period from birth to 1,000 days represents the most vulnerable phase for an infant’s gut health, as well as a critical window for physical growth and brain development, particularly for preterm infants. Therefore, maintaining healthy gut function in preterm infants during this period is crucial. However, the complex nature of the gut microbiota in preterm infants makes it challenging for healthcare providers in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to deliver personalized care and feeding regimens.

Astarte Medical’s preterm infant care software, NICUtrition, and its diagnostic suite represent the company’s first digital solution designed to address core challenges in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) related to enteral feeding, care protocols, and medication adherence. In addition to streamlining clinical workflows for healthcare providers, NICUtrition enables hospitals to benchmark their care protocols and leverage data analytics for in-depth optimization, thereby advancing the goal of evidence-based care for preterm infants.

“For decades, the preterm infant care industry has urgently needed a technology to analyze and benchmark NICU care protocols, and we are very proud to meet this need,” said Tracy Warren, CEO and co-founder of Astarte Medical. “In 2019, we made significant progress in developing the NICUtrition software and diagnostic kit, and won market favor. Today, we have formulated our plans for 2020, supporting the research and development trials of our next-generation flagship product, NICUtrition MAGI, by actively expanding our team and establishing internal regulatory strategies.”

It is reported that Astarte Medical plans to more than triple its workforce in 2020 by adding corporate marketing and customer service personnel. Meanwhile, the company also intends to expand its engineering and data science teams to support the continuous development of its products.

(Compiled by Hu Lushuang)