HeartVoice Medical Secures Tens of Millions in Pre-A Funding to Advance AI-Powered Cardiac Health Solutions

VCBeat learned on July 15 that Anhui HeartVoice Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (HeartVoice) has completed a Pre-A financing round worth tens of millions of yuan, led by SMIC Zihe and Xinwen Capital, with participation from incubator Faragate and others. The funds will be primarily used for the R&D and iteration of its chip and cloud service businesses, as well as for brand building and market expansion.

HeartVoice is a medical technology company dedicated to improving human cardiovascular health through artificial intelligence. It was founded by a team of PhDs from prestigious institutions and enterprises, including the University of Science and Technology of China, Peking University, and Huawei. HeartVoice applies next-generation AI technologies, such as deep learning, to the automated analysis and diagnosis of electrocardiograms (ECG), and has independently developed the internationally leading Cardio-Learn® ECG analysis algorithm.

HeartVoice has successively won numerous top-tier domestic and international awards, including first place in the 18th PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge, the National Gold Award at the 5th China “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, the German Red Dot Award, and Japan’s G-Mark Award. Furthermore, it has published research findings such as “CardioLearn: A Cloud Deep Learning Service for Cardiac Disease Detection from Electrocardiogram” and “CardioID: Learning to Identification from Electrocardiogram Data” at the International World Wide Web Conference (WWW) and in the journal Neurocomputing.

In an interview with VCBeat, Fu Zhaoji, Founder and CEO of HeartVoice, summarized the company’s future strategy in three words: inSide, onAir, and forSociety.

What Does It Take to Add ECG Functionality to Smart Hardware? Just a Few-Millimeter-Sized ECG Acquisition Chip. With this chip, HeartVoice provides the hardware “core” that enables one-click ECG upgrades for various wearable devices and smart hardware.

HeartVoice’s ECG acquisition chip balances the professional standards of medical devices with the portability of wearable technology, offering a variety of solutions for ECG data acquisition and transmission. In addition to its compact size and superior filtering performance, the chip features a standout advantage: ultra-low power consumption, reaching less than 10% of that consumed by solutions commonly adopted by manufacturers today, thereby ensuring the extended battery life critical to wearable devices.

In recent years, the shipment volume and total market size of wearable devices have risen year by year, necessitating continuous enrichment and improvement of their functionalities. HeartVoice provides an integrated, ECG-enabled solution through an open ecosystem, reducing upgrade costs for manufacturers with diverse needs, shortening their R&D cycles, and fostering a win-win collaborative model.

HeartVoice’s AI-powered ECG analysis cloud service, built on the Cardio-Learn® artificial intelligence algorithm based on deep neural networks, has been trained on millions of clinical ECG cases from top-tier (Grade A tertiary) hospitals. It supports the analysis and interpretation of 43 types of ECG abnormalities, covering 97.5% of clinical ECG diagnostic conclusions, with an accuracy rate exceeding 95%. Customers can obtain an ECG analysis report suitable for clinical decision-making within two seconds simply by calling the cloud service.

Whether it is multi-lead ECG assisted analysis using professional electrocardiographs in hospital ECG departments, single-lead ECG detection via wearable devices such as home portable ECG monitors, smartwatches, and smart bands, or long-term ECG data collected by Holter monitors, the AI-powered cloud-based ECG analysis service can deliver rapid and accurate analytical results.

To date, HeartVoice has provided “Chip,” “Cloud,” and “Chip + Cloud” cardiac health solutions to dozens of clients, spanning tertiary hospitals, primary care institutions, health examination centers, wearable device manufacturers, and smart home device makers.

Furthermore, HeartVoice is collaborating with partners across various industries to drive innovation by integrating its “Chip + Cloud” technology into a wide range of everyday devices, thereby seamlessly embedding cardiac health management into accessible daily life scenarios. For instance, electrocardiogram (ECG) hardware in the form of patches can be incorporated into steering wheels to directly monitor drivers’ cardiac health during operation, enhancing driving safety. ECG hardware designed as wrist rests can be added to the base of keyboards to real-time monitor the cardiac health of office workers, particularly during periods of high-intensity work. Additionally, integrating ECG patches into phone cases enables more convenient and rapid daily ECG measurements and detection of abnormal conditions.

As the most long-term component of its strategy, HeartVoice focuses on the social value derived from ultimate “data.” In June 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting and Standardizing the Application and Development of Health and Medical Big Data, incorporating the application and development of health and medical big data into the national big data strategic layout. As an indispensable part of this framework, cardiac health data requires not only the overall planning by state-level entities but also active participation from social forces and market-driven initiatives.

As a medical technology company dedicated to cardiovascular health, HeartVoice aims to leverage artificial intelligence in electrocardiography, particularly through data services for primary care diagnostics and treatment. By conducting comprehensive mining and analysis of cardiac health data to establish a big data resource pool, the company seeks to provide cardiac health data support to the nation and society, thereby contributing to the national initiative of building big data infrastructure for public health.

HeartVoice is collaborating with tertiary hospitals to conduct research and application of the “AI-Based ECG Monitoring Technology for Collaborative Tiered Diagnosis and Treatment Platform of Cardiac Diseases,” aiming to achieve accurate monitoring of residents’ cardiac health, timely detection and precise triage of cardiac conditions with varying levels of severity, and explore innovative models for cardiac disease management and medical services. By leveraging artificial intelligence and big data technologies, we strive to efficiently utilize scarce cardiac care resources, enhance the level of cardiac health management, reduce societal healthcare expenditures, and safeguard human heart health.

Leveraging its core “Chip + Cloud” technology, HeartVoice has also launched a smart hardware device for home use—the Portable AI ECG Monitor. This gum-pack-sized device can analyze and identify 18 types of cardiac arrhythmias, enabling at-home ECG acquisition and automated analysis. According to the World Health Organization’s cardiovascular disease action plan, 80% of premature heart attacks are preventable, making home-based ECG monitoring a crucial tool for early prevention. The HeartVoice Portable AI ECG Monitor is easy to operate, even for elderly users, and can become as commonplace in households as blood pressure monitors and thermometers, allowing for on-the-spot ECG measurements and timely detection of cardiac abnormalities. This smart device received the double international design accolades of the 2019 Red Dot Award and the Good Design Award (G-Mark).

In the future, HeartVoice will comprehensively expand its market presence by establishing nationwide partnerships and sales channels. It will integrate its universal, standardized, and open AI-based ECG analysis hardware products and software services into the service scenarios of various partners, including hospitals, health examination centers, elderly care institutions, wearable device manufacturers, and smart hardware providers. This initiative aims to make AI-powered ECG analysis an readily accessible technological infrastructure, leveraging AI to safeguard human cardiac health.