Oxford University spinoff Ultromics gets $33M Series B funding to help clinicians diagnose cardiovascular disease with AI-powered echocardiography

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. It is also the leading cause of mortality in the world, with an estimated 17 million deaths each year.

To provide treatment for this deadly disease, Oxford, England-based HealthTech startup Ultromics has developed the next generation of echocardiography to help clinicians to diagnose heart disease with unmatched precision and accuracy. To date, Ultromics’ AI-powered echocardiography software has improved the diagnosis of coronary heart disease by more than 90%.

Today, Ultromics announced today that it has raised $33 million in a Series B funding round to help accelerate the use of AI-enabled echocardiograms to help improve patient care and bring improved diagnostic quality and resource savings to hospitals. The round was led by the Blue Venture Fund with participation from Optum Ventures, GV, and existing investor Oxford Sciences Innovation.

An echocardiogram is a device that uses sound waves to produce images of your heart. This echocardiogram test allows doctors to see your heart beating and pumping blood. Doctors can later use the images from an echocardiogram to identify heart disease.

Founded in 2017 by Ross Upton and Paul Leeson, Ultromics’ EchoGo Core and EchoGo Pro platforms quickly deliver highly accurate assessments of heart function that support the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, heart failure, and amyloidosis.

Both were spun out of the University of Oxford and built in partnership with the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS). Oxford Sciences Innovation, an organization that helps scientific breakthroughs become world-changing businesses, helped get Ultromics’ business off the ground and doubled down on its support of Ultromics during the Series B funding round.

“Echocardiograms uploaded to the cloud and analyzed by artificial intelligence are set to revolutionize cardiac disease treatment pathways by helping more people understand their risk of heart disease earlier and with greater accuracy,” said Dr. Ross Upton, CEO and co-founder of Ultromics. “This funding with leading U.S.-affiliated venture capital funds will allow Ultromics to dramatically accelerate the use of AI-enhanced Echo into studies that currently use more expensive and less accurate imaging techniques.”