True to its name, RapidAI is working quickly to build out its slate of artificial-intelligence-powered software tools designed to spot signs of stroke, aneurysm and other neurological conditions in brain CT scans.
To help with that acceleration, the Silicon Valley-based startup has raised $75 million in a recent funding round. The series C haul will help RapidAI not only expand the reach of its existing AI software tools but also bring the technology into new disease areas, according to a company announcement.
The financing comes nearly three years after RapidAI’s last funding round, a series B that was led by Lennertz & Co. and brought in $25 million in September 2020. This year’s round was led by Vista Credit Partners, which will also offer up “operational support” for the company’s growth plans, David Flannery, the investor’s president, said in the announcement.
That support and “access to [Vista’s] expertise will advance our vision, technological innovation and go-to-market efforts as we further establish our leadership position in clinical AI solutions for life-threatening diseases,” said RapidAI CEO Karim Karti.
In the decade since it was founded—originally under the iSchemaView name—RapidAI has built out a portfolio of FDA-cleared tools that automatically analyze CT scans to find early signs of potentially life-threatening brain conditions.
The most recent of these is a tool aimed at detecting possible cases of intracranial hemorrhage and large vessel occlusion from non-contrast CT images. RapidAI announced the Rapid NCCT Stroke technology’s FDA clearance earlier this year, hot on the heels of another regulatory nod—that one for Rapid RV/LV, an add-on to the company’s previously cleared Rapid PE solution for pulmonary embolism detection that calculates the ratio between the right and left ventricles to help determine the severity of a suspected embolism.
Elsewhere, RapidAI has also rolled out machine learning AI software to spot signs of cerebral aneurysms, analyze CT perfusion, calculate stroke severity using the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score system and identify cases of hyperdensity, since overly dense volumes of brain tissue can indicate intracerebral hemorrhage.
To date, according to RapidAI’s funding announcement, the company’s platform has been used to analyze more than 10 million scans and is currently used by thousands of hospitals spanning more than 100 countries.
“Hospitals are increasingly looking for RapidAI solutions to solve their critical needs, including helping care teams work more efficiently and support clinical decision making for better patient outcomes,” Karti said in the release. “RapidAI’s advanced clinical decision support software goes beyond simple triage and notification to provide specific, relevant and contextual data with tremendous accuracy to satisfy these demands.”