The eyes are often referred to as the windows to the soul, while a Guilford company views them as windows into one’s health.
Tesseract Health Inc. said it has raised $80 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round to advance the development of its Tesseract iC eye-imaging diagnostic technology platform.
According to the company, the platform will use retinal imaging to diagnose a range of human diseases and health issues. The company says recent advances in artificial intelligence have enabled “accurate prediction of a person’s blood pressure, diabetic risk, smoking history, Alzheimer’s progression and heart attack risk by peering into the eye with a camera and an algorithm.”
The iC device includes a chemical sensor, imaging technology and artificial intelligence to image the retina. The device will be portable, affordable and easy to use, according to the company. Its goal is to use the technology to diagnose a wide range of diseases without drawing blood.
The Tesseract iC eye imaging device has not yet been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is not yet available for sale.
The company’s founder is Jonathan Rothberg, a serial entrepreneur behind companies such as Butterfly Network Inc., maker of a pocket-sized ultrasound device.
Rothberg said Tesseract’s mission is to “democratize healthcare on a global scale.”
“Tesseract aims to disrupt healthcare by leveraging the wealth of information that exists in the human eye to promote health equity,” Rothberg said. “Everyone, anywhere, must have access to life saving diagnostic information. With Tesseract’s device, we believe they will.”
According to the company, the retina will be the “new noninvasive diagnostic platform of the 21st century.”
The $80 million included support from investors such as Foresite Capital, Glenview Capital and Opaleye.
Tesseract plans to use money toward conducting research to advance its iC platform, to speed up its efforts to obtain U.S. and international regulatory approvals, and for manufacturing. The funds will also be used to enhance its AI capabilities and prepare the company for commercial launch.
Jim Tananbaum, CEO and managing director of Foresite Capital, said in a statement he is excited about iC’s potential to “unlock the potential of the human eye to transform diagnostics.”
Tesseract Health is part of 4Catalyzer, a health technology accelerator with offices in Connecticut, New York, California and Taiwan, and offices opening soon in Miami, Boston, and San Diego.
Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.
