Ultromics has raised $55 million in venture capital funding to expand the reach of its artificial-intelligence-powered ultrasound diagnostics for hidden cardiac conditions.
The Oxford, U.K.-based company has already collected two FDA clearances, including for its software that analyzes standard echocardiograms to help detect cases of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF, which can be difficult to spot on a scan.
It is also developing a screening tool for cardiac amyloidosis—a condition where amyloid proteins build up within the heart muscle and one that is often mistaken for other diseases while contributing to heart failure. That AI program previously received a breakthrough designation from the FDA and received a green light late last year.
“The reality is, hospitals already have the data, they just haven’t had the tools to extract the more subtle diagnostic signals from it,” Ultromics’ founder and CEO, Ross Upton, Ph.D., said in a statement. “By analyzing routine echocardiograms with AI, we’re helping clinicians identify high-risk patients earlier, enabling intervention before disease progresses.”
According to the company, its software has been used to analyze more than 430,000 echocardiograms to date, and the EchoGo platform has shown that it can improve HFpEF detection by 73% compared to standard clinical risk scores.
“We’ve spent years building our platform to fit into clinical workflows, with no extra hardware and no new friction, and this funding helps us scale that across the U.S. at a moment when health systems are actively looking to combat the growing heart failure crisis,” Upton said.
The $55 million series C funding round was co-led by L&G, Allegis Capital and Lightrock; among the additional backers were Oxford Science Enterprises, GV, Blue Venture Fund and the University of Oxford. Participants also included U.S. health systems such as UChicago Medicine’s venture arm, UCM Ventures, as well as UPMC Enterprises.
Ultromics has also received a boost from drugmakers developing therapies for transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, the related and underdiagnosed condition also known as ATTR-CM. Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Biotech supported the development of Ultromics’ EchoGo Amyloidosis, while Pfizer assisted in the performance testing and validation ahead of its regulatory submission.
Last month, Ultromics had a study of more than 2,600 people published in the European Heart Journal, from researchers at the Mayo Clinic and several international centers, showing that EchoGo Amyloidosis could deliver 85% sensitivity and 93% specificity across all major cardiac amyloidosis subtypes—and distinguish them from similar conditions such as hypertensive heart disease, HFpEF and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
“There’s a long-standing blind spot in cardiology where millions of patients with treatable heart failure are missed because their symptoms are subtle and echo images are hard to interpret,” said Victor Westerlind, managing director at Allegis Capital.
“What’s exciting about Ultromics is how they’re closing that gap. Their platform brings AI and cardiology together in a way that makes it easier for physicians to identify high-risk patients earlier,” Westerlind said. “When paired with the latest treatment advances, it’s a diagnostic win that will help save lives.”