What You Should Know:
– Sight Diagnostics, the company behind the first FDA-approved fingerstick Complete Blood Count analyzer, announced it has raised $71 million in Series D funding from leading strategic investors including Koch Industries, OurCrowd, and others.
– The Series D round – which more than doubles the company’s total funding to date – will support the expansion of Sight’s commercial operations globally, with a specific focus on the US and UK, and advance its R&D into the early detection of serious health conditions like sepsis and cancer as well as the blood factors affecting COVID-19 severity.
– Sight aims to transform blood testing through its flagship OLO analyzer, which uses AI to automate the identification and counting of different blood cell types and anomalies. It delivers lab-grade CBC results – one of the most fundamentally informative tests for determining a patient’s overall health – in minutes from just two drops of blood.
– Thus far, Sight has secured contractual agreements with healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies to deploy 1000+ analyzers over the coming year and will use the fundraise to meet this demand. One of the new partnerships is with Pfizer, who will work with Sight in the UK to support their therapy administered by NHS trusts.
Sight Diagnostics, the company behind the first FDA-cleared fingerstick Complete Blood Count (CBC) analyzer, announced today it has raised $71 million in Series D funding with participation from Koch Disruptive Technologies, Longliv Ventures, and OurCrowd. This new round brings Sight’s total funding to more than $124 million and will support the expansion of Sight’s commercial operations globally and advance Sight’s R&D into the detection of new diseases as well as the blood factors affecting COVID-19 severity.
Blood Diagnostics Reimagined
Each day millions of physicians postpone prescribing medical treatment because they lack timely access to accurate blood test results. The complexity and cost of small volume testing see most blood samples returned following lengthy processing times, which can delay treatment for patients.
Founded in 2011, Sight Diagnostics aims to transform blood testing through its flagship Sight OLOⓇ analyzer which automates the identification and counting of different blood cell types and anomalies. Sight OLO delivers lab-grade Complete Blood Count (CBC) results by measuring 19 different blood parameters in minutes from just two drops of blood obtained from a finger prick or venous sample. As a result of Sight’s AI-driven method, the company has generated more than half a petabyte of blood imagery data used to not only optimize Sight’s machine learning engine but also to explore the early detection of serious health conditions like sepsis and cancer as well as blood factors affecting the severity of COVID-19.
How It Works
The complete blood count––which enumerates and characterizes the number of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in a patient’s blood sample––is one of the most basic, informative tests a doctor can conduct
– Using a patented method of “digitizing blood samples,” the analyzer automates the identification and counting of different blood cell types and anomalies and runs it through Sight’s proprietary machine vision algorithms
– The analyzer returns accurate blood test results within minutes
– OLO is compact, easy to use, and can reduce costs in low-volume settings
Recent Traction/Milestones
Since receiving FDA 510(k) clearance* for Sight OLO in late 2019, Sight has continued to expand its global footprint with a specific focus on the US market. Thus far, Sight has secured contractual agreements with healthcare providers and distribution partners to deploy more than 1,000 analyzers over the coming years and will use the funds raised to meet this demand. In parallel, Sight is also working with large pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, to provide support for different treatments and therapies.
Since early in the pandemic, Sight has deployed its Sight OLO analyzer in frontline healthcare facilities outside of the United States fighting COVID-19, including the globally renowned Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, Israel.
In the United States, Sight OLO is 510(k) cleared for use in moderate complexity laboratories; it has not yet been cleared for point-of-care use. Outside of the United States, Sight OLO is CE Marked according to the IVD European directive and approved by the Australian TGA for point of care settings.
“This new investment will enable Sight to substantially expand our U.S. footprint and help usher in a new era of AI-driven diagnostics for a myriad of diseases and health conditions,” said Yossi Pollak, CEO and co-founder of Sight Diagnostics. “We’re glad to have Koch Disruptive Technologies, OurCrowd and other esteemed investors join us on our mission to improve health systems and patient outcomes through developing fast, accurate and less painful diagnostics.”
