Pearl Secures $11 Million Series A Funding to Build Automated Dental Diagnosis Platform

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Pearl, a healthcare startup focused on the dental industry, was founded by GumGum, an AI startup headquartered in Los Angeles. Recently, Pearl announced the completion of an $11 million Series A financing round. The round was jointly invested by undisclosed strategic investors and Craft Ventures. Ophir Tanz, co-founder of GumGum, oversees Pearl’s operations, while Phil Schraeder, President and Chief Operating Officer, serves as Pearl’s Chief Executive Officer.

Pearl was founded on April 30, 2019, and is headquartered in West Hollywood, California. Pearl’s AI solutions enable dental professionals to detect dental health issues earlier and with greater precision. The company possesses the world’s largest database of X-ray images, capable of identifying dozens of conditions related to dental pathology and natural anatomy, as well as existing restorations. Pearl provides clinicians with reliable data for patient assessment, allowing them to spend more time with patients and develop better treatment plans. Additionally, Pearl has developed an automated task solution for dental laboratories.

Pearl’s products include the following three: Second Opinion—a computer vision platform that can instantly and accurately identify dozens of common dental X-ray pathologies; Practice Intelligence—which leverages data collected from the computer vision platform to provide a suite of decision analytics for dental practices; and Smart Margin—an AI-powered dental laboratory tool that instantly and accurately marks tooth positions and restorative occlusion, ensuring the quality of scans organized by dental professionals.

“The problem with dentistry is that it has always been isolated from the broader healthcare system for no apparent reason. But this isolation also represents a huge market opportunity,” said Ophir Tanz. “Machine learning applications in the dental industry can reduce insurance fraud and automate workflows in dental offices. However, the dental sector, which Pearl focuses on, has not yet been impacted by machine learning applications.”

“Pearl’s goal is to integrate diagnostic tools with medical devices through software that can be remotely distributed and updated, providing practitioners with the highest-quality information,” added Ophir Tanz.

Craft Ventures is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that primarily invests in early-stage companies. Craft was founded by David O. Sacks and Bill Lee in 2017. As of November 2018, the firm’s portfolio companies included Bird, BitGo, Cloud9, Harbour, Lumina, Reddit, SpaceX, Terminal, and Wayv.

(Compiled by He Qiongfeng)