Sonde Health Secures $16M Series A Funding to Advance Voice-Based Health Monitoring Technology

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media that on April 11, U.S. local time, biotechnology company Sonde Health completed a $16 million Series A financing round led by M Ventures. The funds raised in this round will be used to support further research and development of Sonde Health’s voice analysis technology for monitoring mental health conditions and physical well-being.

Sonde Health, founded in 2015 and headquartered in Boston, aims to monitor human health conditions using voice analysis technology. Currently, Sonde Health has obtained a license for the voice scanning technology developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Sonde Health’s currently developed voice technology platform can be used to monitor individuals’ mental health status. Sonde Health has collected voice recordings from over 10,000 scenarios reflecting various health conditions, establishing them as reference standards. When users experience psychological issues, corresponding changes occur in their hormonal levels and brainwave patterns. By analyzing the subtle effects of these physiological changes on voice characteristics, Sonde Health monitors mental health disorders. Clinical trials have demonstrated its ability to measure mental health conditions, including depression, cognitive impairment, and concussion.

Furthermore, the technology platform developed by Sonde Health can also monitor physical health conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease. Vocalization produces corresponding biomarkers; when health issues arise, changes in biomarker levels affect vocal fold phonation, resulting in hoarseness or unstable breathiness. Such changes are imperceptible to the human ear but can be detected by the Sonde Health platform.

Sonde Health’s speech recognition technology is continuously evolving. The first-generation technology required users to read fixed texts or answer questions in specific environments. Currently, Sonde Health is working to integrate its monitoring technology into mobile devices and other wearable electronics, enabling real-time health monitoring through the collection of voice data from daily calls and providing timely treatment recommendations. This technology is already capable of detecting a wide range of conditions, from depression and respiratory diseases to chronic age-related illnesses.

“When humans speak, they engage various bodily functions. This requires not only coordination by the brain but also the involvement of the musculoskeletal and respiratory systems,” said Jim Harper, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Sonde Health. “We believe that the body’s reliance on whole-system coordination during vocalization can offer new avenues for disease monitoring. When analyzing speech, we do not focus on the content; instead, we examine changes in various vocal metrics. Furthermore, we are continuously refining our privacy protection mechanisms to enhance user experience.”

M Ventures is a venture capital firm under Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Headquartered in Amsterdam with offices in the United States and Israel, it aims to invest in the early and late stages of innovative biotechnology companies and help entrepreneurs expand their business operations.

(Compiled by Liu Yujing)