US-based company Opmed.ai has raised $16m in Series A funding to develop its AI-driven software, which is designed to optimise the operational capacity of operating rooms (ORs).
The Series A investors included NFX and Grove Ventures, alongside Secret Chord Ventures, the impact investor Sir Ronald Cohen, and Unbox Ventures. The company plans to continue the implementation of the software in hospitals to save money loss associated with empty ORs.
Opmed.ai’s platform is designed to explore numerous scheduling possibilities, identify schedule errors, and adjust for various factors such as anaesthesia and turnover times. According to the company, it can then generate improved schedules by considering staff availabilities, equipment and other relevant factors. The platform can be implemented in two to four weeks.
Grove Ventures general partner Renana Ashkenazi said: “Adding to the attractiveness of the investment is the fact that the ROI is so clear and significant, even from an early stage. We’ve seen the millions of dollars it has saved and generated in hospitals where it’s already deployed, and as impressed as we were, the hospitals' enthusiasm has been even greater.”
AI integration will be a key driver of healthcare innovation, according to Joselia Carlos, a medical device analyst at GlobalData. It can bring several benefits, such as aiding physicians in making faster and more reliable diagnostic decisions, data management, and the potential of remote surgery in rural areas.
According to a report on GlobalData’s Medical Intelligence Center, AI in the medical market was worth $336m in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.1% to $1.2bn by 2027.
Investment into AI in the healthcare space continues to grow. In February 2024, US-based health tech start-up Fabric received $60m from investors to kick-start its automated, AI-driven software designed to automate clinical and administrative work in healthcare facilities. The Fabric suite of software is designed to allow patients to manage their care, as well as track symptoms and schedule appointments.
The same month, French AI start-up Bioptimus launched with $35m seed funding. The company is developing a foundational model (FM) for biology, aiming to create a universal computational model that creates contextual representations of biological entities that interact with each other.
