VoxelCloud Secures RMB 100 Million Series A+ Funding Led by Tencent, with Sequoia Capital Participation

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned at the earliest opportunity that on September 28,Medical AI Company VoxelCloud(VoxelCloud)Completed RMB 100 million in Series A+ financing, led by Tencent (strategic investment), with follow-on investments from Series A investors Sequoia Capital and Lianchuang Capital。

This round of financing will be used to further integrate AI medical products into hospital settings and to drive innovation in the application scenarios of artificial intelligence within the healthcare sector.

Ding Xiaowei, founder of VoxelCloud, stated: “VoxelCloud’s three main product lines: lung cancer diagnosis, ophthalmic disease screening,Coronary CTA Analysis SystemThe system has been implemented in more than 50 renowned hospitals both domestically and internationally. Since its launch, it has assisted physicians in diagnosing approximately 50,000 patients with thoracic diseases, 50,000 patients with cardiac diseases, and over 100,000 patients with ocular diseases.。”

Previously, in May this year, VoxelCloud completed a tens-of-millions-of-dollars Series A financing round from Sequoia Capital and Lianchuang Capital.

Ding Xiaowei stated that at the A+ round of investment, in addition to valuing the field of medical artificial intelligence, investors were primarily impressed by the maturity of VoxelCloud’s products. VoxelCloud’s AI-based product line for coronary CT angiography analysis has obtained certification from the U.S. FDA and the European CE, qualifying it for market access. Additionally, five of VoxelCloud’s products have been submitted for review by the CFDA, with the first batch expected to receive approval for clinical application by the end of the year.

Founder: Ding Xiaowei

Ding Xiaowei founded VoxelCloud in 2016. His doctoral advisor, Demetri Terzopoulos, is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Director of the Computer Vision and Graphics Laboratory, as well as a recipient of the 2005 Academy Award for Technical Achievement. Dr. Jianming Liang, an Affiliate Professor at the Mayo Clinic and Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Computer Science at Arizona State University (ASU), joined VoxelCloud as a co-founder. The original intention behind establishing VoxelCloud was to make medical diagnostics accessible to everyone.

On the other hand, VoxelCloud’s team members hail from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, General Electric, Siemens, Carnegie Mellon University, Arizona State University, Northwestern University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Xi’an Jiaotong University. They are all highly active scientists and medical experts in the fields of medical image analysis, computer vision, and machine learning.

Most members of the team are experts in the interdisciplinary field of medicine and engineering. Working within hospitals, they are well-versed in clinical workflows and scenarios, and deeply understand that the development of medical AI products relies not only on artificial intelligence technology but also on a profound medical background.

It is precisely due to its deep understanding of technology and healthcare that VoxelCloud places particular emphasis on the processing of medical data. Each imaging dataset undergoes cross-review by 5–7 independent teams, and years of accumulation have enabled VoxelCloud to establish a robust data advantage.

Furthermore, as some team members come from an academic background and are accustomed to the research protocols of the NIH (National Institutes of Health), they maintain rigorous standards for every step of the research process.

VoxelCloud also grants its teams considerable autonomy. The company comprises several research teams, each responsible for product development in their respective domains. VoxelCloud provides data and financial support and retains only the patents for the products. Team members are responsible for product design, publishing papers (under the researchers’ names), and other related tasks, thereby gaining all honors and influence except for product ownership. Ding Xiaowei stated that he now welcomes more domestic and international experts to join VoxelCloud.。

Regarding in-depth product research and development, Ding Xiaowei stated that VoxelCloud will place greater emphasis on the rigorous study of medical artificial intelligence products, ensuring they align more closely with clinical standards and integrate seamlessly into physicians’ workflows. For existing products, the company aims to enhance their comprehensiveness and intelligence across the entire disease management continuum.

Taking lung cancer as an example, VoxelCloud has partnered with the UCLA Health (University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center) to integrate radiological imaging, genomics, and non-invasive liquid biopsy technologies, focusing on the development of non-invasive early screening protocols for lung cancer.

On the other hand,VoxelCloud focuses its R&D efforts on the encapsulation of its products.Throughout the entire medical process, breakthroughs in single-point technologies can help improve diagnostic efficiency for serious diseases; however, they have limited impact on overall clinical workflows and medical decision-making cycles, thereby restricting their clinical utility. In contrast, VoxelCloud not only strives for excellence in radiological imaging but also optimizes the entire healthcare workflow.

Additionally,Comprehensiveness also entails that products, while maintaining high accuracy, can recognize the uncertainty inherent in diseases., just as physicians typically do not make judgments based on a single examination or visit data, especially for serious diseases, which require observation of subsequent progress. VoxelCloud's research direction is to enable systems to possess the ability to make uncertain diagnoses for diseases with uncertainty.

Another highlight of VoxelCloud’s future products isRecommend necessary and unnecessary tests based on the patient’s current condition to achieve optimal allocation of medical resources.。

In terms of business model, VoxelCloud has also made some progress and currently maintains close cooperation with the following three types of institutions:

The first category includes healthcare institutions, large medical centers, and national-level disease screening programs.

The second category comprises platform-based service institutions. VoxelCloud integrates its services or technologies into third-party platforms, thereby maximizing product utilization and validation across a wide range of scenarios.

The third category comprises medical device manufacturers, which leverage analytical algorithms to add value to their devices, thereby introducing product differentiation in a highly homogeneous market.

Ding Xiaowei stated that these are merely commercial explorations at the current stage, and a thorough discussion of the true profitability model must await the company’s acquisition of certifications from the CFDA and the FDA.

Tencent, the lead investor in this funding round, has long established a broad presence in the AI healthcare sector. For instance, its self-developed AI medical imaging product, “Tencent Miying,” demonstrates its prowess in AI healthcare product R&D. Tencent’s AI resources and platforms, including its offline diagnostic infrastructure, will help VoxelCloud expand the application scenarios for more of its products.

Tencent stated that it has long been optimistic about the development potential of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector. Amid increasingly fierce competition among AI-driven healthcare companies, VoxelCloud’s team maintains a leading position both domestically and internationally in terms of professionalism and technical expertise, while its product development and commercial implementation remain at the forefront of the industry.

“We are delighted to grow together with VoxelCloud, a company with solid research capabilities and a strong spirit of innovation, to promote the practical application of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector,” said Tencent’s investment team.