Taking Artificial Intelligence into prenatal care, French startup Sonio has just secured €5 million in new funding. The startup’s pioneering tech guides practitioners during prenatal ultrasounds to optimize treatment and diagnosis.
Women’s health is still a massively under-funded and under-researched area. One major implication of this is the treatment and care available for pregnant women – impacting both the expectant mother and children.
On a mission to empower fetal medicine professionals to secure pregnancy care, Paris-based startup Sonio has itself secured a fresh €5 million. The capital boost was led by Elaia, alongside OneRagtime and Bpifrance.
Founded in 2020 by entrepreneurs (Cécile Brosset, Dagmar Nuber) and scientific (Rémi Besson, Stéphanie Allassonnière, Erwan Le Pennec), medical (Yves Ville, Julien Stirnemann, Emmanuel Spaggiari) and tech experts (David Amouyal, Deepak Prakash), Sonio leverages 5 years of R&D and clinical development at Ecole Polytechnique, the Prairie Institute and Necker Hospital in Paris. It’s a team that brings together unique expertise from the fields of fetal medicine, artificial intelligence, software development and imaging – taking a holistic approach to improving medical outcomes.
It’s reported that 50% of congenital malformations are not detected before birth, and this is what Sonio wants to address. It provides a unique AI software that provides prenatal medicine practitioners with all types of medical, imaging, genetic and environmental data to optimize prenatal screening and diagnosis – a game-changer for the sector.
Already, the solution is being used by 150 healthcare professionals in Europe – able to assist beginners to the most seasoned medical practitioners. The startup has also secured several partnerships with the likes of Samsung France (ultrasound manufacturer), as well as with private clinics such as PointGyn (OneClinic) in France and GynEcho in Canada.
Moving forward, Sonio wants to continue its mission of bringing a positive impact to the medical world. This new funding will enable the team to add embedded image recognition into the Sonio platform, provide a boost to plans to enter the US and get FDA clearance, and, it will help ramp up the sales process in Europe.
Cécile Brosset, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Sonio, said: “Sonio addresses very important issues for both pregnant women and fetal medicine practitioners with a unique combination of artificial intelligence and clinical expertise. This new round of financing will allow us to recruit the talents we need both in software development and sales, and bring to the market our full suite of products.”
Stéphanie Hospital, Founder and CEO at OneRagtime, added: “At OneRagtime, we have been seduced by Sonio’s vision to leverage artificial intelligence to improve pregnant women’s health and empower practitioners in prenatal screening and diagnosis. We are proud to support the company in its roadmap and commercial expansion across Europe and the US. We are fully convinced by the team’s experience and ability to execute this innovative business and become the reference in prenatal care.”
