Stanford University-incubated startup Segmen recently raised over $2 million during a seed funding, said Crunch Base. The company will be focusing on data processing and dataset curation for patients, healthcare workers, researchers, and artificial intelligence.
The company seeks to make data gathering and usage more efficient. Segmed CEO and co-founder Cailin Hardell said, “It can take more than 18 months for a company to get its own dataset.”
In a press release published on PR Newswire, Hardell noted that Segmed seeks to aggregate and leverage big data sets that represent a larger part of the field. Ultimately, this aims to help facilities deliver better health care.
Hardell added, “Our advantages are speed and the relationships we already have in place to provide a more diverse dataset. Previously, companies would have to form relationships one by one with health care providers.”
The fund provided by Blumberg Capital was from a seed funding round led by the investment company. It was participated by Nina capital and some angel investors. The $2 million funds came on top of the $750,000 it was able to raised prior to the seed round.
Blumberg Capital founding and managing partner David Blumberg said, “It’s saving lives, making doctors better practitioners and we can discover drugs faster than before. Segmed is exciting for us as we move into more health care deals.”
He added, “Data has to be anonymized, secured, and labeled so that the AI model can weight the modes appropriately. We love that Segmed can grow its own data ‘moat’ and be competitive.”
The startup, which was founded during Stanford University’s Ignite program, intends to aid in various medical applications. According to Hardell, “All of the founders chose to work in the medical AI space, and what emerged at the end of the program was Segmed.”
“We thought that if medical AI had potential, and if it solved the problem, we could push AI globally,” added Hardell.
The company has been expanding its team, with a focus on data experts, over the past six weeks in order to achieve its goal. It seeks to launch a self-service platform in 2021. It has been operating since March.
Aside from the new platform, the company is preparing for Series A funding in 2021. Its potential platform will play a role in this effort, as it is expected to raise revenues and customer base.
