German digital AI health firm Ada health, which has developed AI for diagnosing symptoms, has been backed by investment arms of South Korea’s Samsung and German pharmaceutical buyer Bayer.
Headquartered in Berlin, Ada Health announced on Thursday that it has raised a $90 million funding that brings total investment in the company up to around $150 million.
The largest pharmaceutical and life sciences company - Bayer led the round through Leps by its investment arm while Samsung invested through its Catalyst Fund – a U.S based venture capital fund that Samsung uses to back companies worldwide.
Founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs Claire, Martin Hirsch, and Daniel Nathrath, Ada Health mentioned that its app has been downloaded over 11 million times.
“The app basically works like a WhatsApp chat with your trusted family doctor, but 24/7” - Nathrath, CEO of Ada Health said.
The entrepreneur added that the company has signed contracts with several health systems, health insurers, and life sciences companies. Pfizer, Novartis, Axa OneHealth, and SutterHealth are all registered as partners on Ada Health’s website.
“Smartwatches and other sensors have really made a big leap forward,” Nathrath said. “Nowadays you can measure your blood pressure, you can do an ECG, measure heart rate variability and blood oxygen levels.”
“Our ambition is really to build what we call a personal operating system for health where you wouldn’t just have a symptom check, but you would be able to integrate all relevant sources of health information in a way where ideally Ada becomes this companion that can alert you before the £100 problem becomes a £100,000 a year problem,” - Nathrath said while adding more information beyond symptom data provided by the patient.
