CK Hutchison-backed venture capital fund Longliv ventures has just put forth a follow-on investment in Israel-based start-up Sight Diagnostics.
CK Hutchison is the parent company of the Singapore-listed, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings.
Together with other investors such as Koch Disruptive Technologies based in the US and Israel-headquartered OurCrowd, Longliv is investing US$71 million ($97.5 million) in the company.
To Longliv, this is a worthy investment given Sight Diagnostics’ vision to revolutionise diagnostics in areas of hematology – the study and treatment of blood disorders.
Founded in 2011, Sight Diagnostics aims to transform blood testing through its Sight OLO analyzer which automates the identification and quantification of different blood cell types and anomalies.
Leveraging on its capabilities in artificial intelligence, the start-up has generated a database of over half a petabyte of blood imagery, enabling Sight OLO to have more rapid and accurate results during clinical testing.
Sight Diagnostics is also exploring other algorithms for other health concerns, such as the early detection of sepsis and cancer and the blood factors affecting the severity of Covid-19.
With the latest investment, it will able to “substantially expand [their] footprint in the US and help usher in a new era of AI-driven diagnostics for a myriad of diseases and health conditions,” says Yossi Pollak, CEO and co-founder of Sight Diagnostics.
So far, the company received some clearance for the usage of Sight OLO in the US’ moderate complexity laboratories. It is pending clearance for point-of-care usage there.
Elsewhere, Sight OLO has been accorded a CE marking – a certificate of conformity – in Europe and clearance for point-of-care usage in Australia.
Says Jon Medved, CEO of OurCrowd, “Sight’s technology has been clinically tested and validated by leading healthcare institutions and we have no doubt it is pioneering the next generation of blood diagnostics”.
Agreeing, Chase Koch, President of Koch Disruptive Technologies “firmly believes that Sight’s method of using machine vision to analyze blood is a significant leap forward from the current alternative in healthcare"
“Not only is the company bringing truly innovative solutions to the blood diagnostics industry, it is also driving a vision to decentralize information and increase consumer access in healthcare markets across the world,” he asserts.
