The company initially raised $3 million in seed funding when it launched in October Obesity is defined by having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater and it's a growing, and expensive, problem. In 2019, obesity-related medical care costs were estimated to be nearly $173 billion, while annual nationwide productivity costs of obesity-related absenteeism range between $3.38 billion and $6.38 billion, or between $79 and $132 per individual with obesity. By 2030, nearly half of all Americans ... [Read more ..read more

The company also expanded access to 12 different provider types for male fertility care There's a huge gray area between those who are lucky enough to conceive easily and those who struggle and are ready to go into IVF: while most people are taught how not to have a baby, almost none learn how to conceive. That means that by the time they're ready, they don’t have a clear place to turn. In fact, 86% ... [Read more ..read more

Ezra's AI cancer screening platform will be available in 150 RAYUS locations Ezra is a company looking to make cancer screenings more widely available and more affordable through a direct-to-consumer cancer screening platform, which uses a combination of MRI screenings and artificial intelligence to make them more accurate cancer. To do that, the company partners with existing outpatient imaging facilities; the company's cancer screening programs are currently live in over 22 locations across New ... [Read more ..read more

This is the company's first fundraising since 2019 and brings its total capital to $103M At the height of COVID, there was seemingly a new mental health company popping up almost on a weekly basis to deal with the increased demand as every group of Americans suffered from the pandemic. Investments grew accordingly: in 2021, mental health companies brought in $5.5 billion globally, across 324 deals, a 139% increase year-to-year. Now, a few years out, the dust ... [Read more ..read more

ROOK lets health, fitness, and wellness companies take data from devices and make it actionable The wearable market is made of hundreds of devices that are fragmented, leading to disparate, difficult-to-use health data, and requiring one-by-one integration and individual maintenance. That makes accessing and using this data a drain on R&D time, which is already stretched. ROOK is a company solving that problem by enabling health, fitness, and wellness companies to access and convert their users’ wearable ... [Read more ..read more

The EU approved the European Health Data Space, making it easier to exchange and access health data There's a lot of talk about the fragmented landscape when it comes to healthcare data in the US, but this is not a purely American problem. That's why the European Union last month approved a new law making it easier to exchange and access health data called the European Health Data Space. Projected to generate around 50 billion euros of value to the healthcare ... [Read more ..read more

New series highlighting emerging companies from Japan The Tokyo government has an ambitious claim: To be the most startup friendly city in the world. While it doesn’t have a timeframe to achieve this goal, the government is certainly making a good faith effort to execute on it.  More than two dozen Tokyo-based startups with unique perspectives and innovative solutions in the areas of AI, robotics, biotech, healthcare, ... [Read more ..read more

Companies like Amazon, Walmart, Alibaba, and UPS have been making investments for years As we're previously written about, automation is becoming a bigger and bigger factor in the manufacturing industry, with technologies like automated guided vehicles (AVG), automated autonomous mobile robots (AMR), artificial intelligence, and robotic arms, all working together to help make workers more efficient, and safer, while allowing them to focus on more important tasks than moving boxes around and scanning ... [Read more ..read more

The new service, called PAM Health Therapy at Home powered by Luna, will be available starting May 1 As more care moves into the home, thanks to the proliferation of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring, companies like Luna, a provider of in-home physical services, have found themselves increasingly popular with health systems who want to expand these offerings to their patients. Luna has been entering into a series of partnerships over the last few years, including with AARP, Providence, Emory ... [Read more ..read more

Cushing's is caused by too much cortisol, sometimes as a result of a tumor on the pituitary or lung Rare diseases can be hard to diagnose because, as the name suggests, they're uncommon: while they may have specific symptoms, both doctors and patients may not know to even look out for them. That is where a service like Ubie can be especially useful: the Tokyo-based company has developed an AI-based symptom tracking platform to help guide patients to their correct treatment ... [Read more ..read more