SoftBank leads $100 investment in digital therapeutics startup Biofourmis to predict diseases before they happen

Biofourmis is a Boston-based digital therapeutics startup that powers personalized predictive care. The startup uses wearables to track whether drugs are effective. Biofourmis is part of a small but growing group of venture-backed start-ups looking to augment traditional medicines with digital technology, including wearables and software.

Today, Biofourmis announced it has closed a $100 million Series C financing round to advance “home hospital” initiatives with health systems and “beyond the pill” digital therapeutics partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation by existing investors Openspace Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and EDBI.

First launched in Singapore in 2015, Biofourmis combines AI, evidence-based therapeutic interventions, a patient-facing companion app, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved wearable biosensors to optimize patient care and health outcomes. The components work synergistically to drive patient adherence to medication regimens. By remotely monitoring and analyzing physiological signals, the AI-powered digital therapeutics technology can predict and prevent adverse events. The company’s proprietary digital therapeutics platform Biovitals™ is based on emerging clinical evidence that drug-software combinations can enhance clinical effectiveness.

Why is this a big deal? Health-focused wearable technology has been generating a lot of headlines lately, thanks in part to the announcement of Amazon’s “Halo” health-tracking device. But unlike Halo, Biofourmis’ products are intended for clinical uses, rather than consumers.

In May 2019, Biofourmis closed its $35 million Series B round. Since that time, the company has increased its revenue significantly through new partnerships and growth with seven pharmaceutical companies and 10 health systems globally. Biofourmis also made major acquisitions during that time, including wearable biosensor leader Biovotion and Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ oncology-focused digital therapeutics company Gaido Health.

“COVID-19 is pushing remote monitoring and digital therapeutics to the forefront of medicine,” said Biofourmis CEO Kuldeep Singh Rajput. “Our vision is to use digital medicine to empower patients, clinicians, and researchers everywhere by providing software-as-a-treatment for patients with unmet clinical needs, from post-acute care to optimize medication therapy. With this new funding, we will accelerate our global expansion, advance our digital therapeutics pipeline, develop additional care pathways, and drive deeper integration with our health system, hospital, pharmaceutical, and clinical research clients and partners.”

In addition, Biofourmis will use the funding for developing, validating, and commercializing several released and unreleased digital therapeutics solutions across cardiology, respiratory, oncology, and pain, with a focus on the United States and key Asian markets, including the Asia Pacific, China, and Japan.

“We believe predictive health is the future of medicine and Biofourmis is a leader in using AI and machine learning-based solutions to advance digital therapeutics,” said Greg Moon, Managing Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers. “We are excited to partner with Biofourmis and support its mission of using AI and wearables data to enable personalized care.”