Irish-based pathology software and services Deciphex has closed a $11.5m Series B funding round led by ACT Venture Capital, with Charles River Laboratories, Novartis, IRRUS Investments, Nextsteps Capital, HBAN Medtech Syndicate and other current investors also participating.
Deciphex uses digital pathology and AI to accelerate diagnosis at a time when the number of clinical pathologists worldwide is expected to significantly decrease over the next decade.
Since its foundation in 2017, the company has driven traction in the research pathology market, with the adoption of its Patholytix digital pathology platform by a number of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations.
"This funding is an important milestone for the business in its ambition to use Digital Pathology and AI to network and accelerate the world’s clinical and non-clinical pathologists," said Donal O'Shea, CEO of Deciphex.
“The ongoing support from our long term investors along with the addition of new strategic partners reaffirms the value we are bringing to the pathology community and the ambition of our future growth plans'' he adds.
In Association with
Deciphex said it would use the funding to expand in the UK, Canada and the Middle East and consolidate its leading position in clinical and non-clinical pathology through AI, with a particular focus on enhancing Patholytix and launching its Diagnexia clinical service in the US.
Diagnexia is an online clinical pathology department, launched by Deciphex in late 2021, that provides on-demand access to remote subspecialty clinical pathologists for primary diagnostics and secondary consultancy services.
The company agreed a key strategic partnership with pre-clinical contract research organisation Charles Rivers Laboratories, International in early 2020 to co-develop AI tools to accelerate drug safety assessment, and it is also a member of the EU-funded Big Picture initiative to build the world's biggest central repository of digital pathology slides to boost the development of AI.
Prof Runjan Chetty, chief medical officer at Deciphex, said: "With the pressures confronting pathology (especially around workforce shortages and growing expertise requirements), the creative deployment of digital pathology enhanced by AI presents a great opportunity to address these issues.
"There is an exponential increase in the number of hospitals using or looking to use digital pathology in the last two to three years. It has moved from a theoretical possibility to a practical reality and imperative today."
John O’Sullivan, general partner of Act Venture Capital, added: “Pathologists expertise is a crucial input across healthcare, from product development through to clinical delivery. Deciphex has built a platform to support and enhance Pathologists’ capability to deliver their skills at scale.
"Donal and the team created the product with leading pathology groups and the adoption over the past two years has confirmed the capability and opportunity to re-tool the pathology work bench.”
Deciphex's latest accounts show the company had total equity of €4.8m after making a loss of nearly €1.7m in 2020, a year in which it employed an average of 28 people. The firm previously secured funding of $6.2m in the third quarter of 2020.
Photo: Dr Donal O'Shea (left) and Deciphex COO Dr Mairin Rafferty.
