Sonio announces a €10M fundraising through the European Innovation Council Accelerator, the leading fund in supporting European deep-tech companies. For this cohort, among 1092 projects submitted, only 78 companies were selected by the EIC Accelerator. This fundraising (€2.5M in grant and €7.5M in equity investment) comes in addition to the €5M previously raised with Elaia, OneRagtime and Bpi France in June 2022. It will support Sonio, a company that empowers fetal medicine professionals and secures pregnancy ultrasounds through AI, to accelerate the release of new features on the platform, such as embedded image recognition and genomics. A great opportunity, also, to gain momentum for the French startup’s market entry in the USA, as well as ramp up sales in Europe and India.
Sonio brings together unique expertise from the fields of fetal medicine, artificial intelligence, software development and ultrasound imaging to address the 50% of congenital malformations that are not detected before birth and improve access and quality of care for pregnant women and children. Created only a couple of years ago, the startup company leverages 5 years of R&D and clinical development at Ecole Polytechnique, the PRAIRIE Institute and Necker Hospital in Paris. It already provides a comprehensive solution to assist all fetal ultrasound practitioners, from beginners to the most seasoned experts and is already being used by over 250 healthcare professionals.
“Receiving such a significant funding from one of the most competitive accelerators in the world is a testament to the innovation Sonio brings to fetal medicine” said Cécile Brosset, Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of Sonio. « Our hard work has been fruitful. I am now more confident than ever that we can help secure pregnancy care worldwide with collective and artificial intelligence.”
“For us this funding means more research, more clinical studies, more innovation, more patents filed in Europe and ultimately an improved quality of care for patients, wherever they are. We are eager to intensify our scientific partnerships with some of the best experts in Fetal Medicine and Artificial Intelligence.” said Rémi Besson, Chief Scientific Officer and co-Founder of Sonio.
Inspired by the company’s mission and in just 2.5 years, Sonio’s multidisciplinary team has already brought 2 products to market:
- Sonio Diagnostics, designed for expert diagnostic ultrasounds, was CE marked and found its first clients in record time.
- Sonio Pro, tailored to secure and bring more efficiency to routine pregnancy ultrasounds, was launched in October and has already convinced customers in Europe.
Several partnerships have already been signed, with Samsung France, one of the main women’s health ultrasound manufacturers, but also with specialized distributors (Lifecell in India, Manager Systems in Brazil, Dynamic Medicals in Nigeria).
“This funding from EIC will allow us to accelerate our commercial development in the USA and in Europe, thanks to faster innovation and better market access. We will also be able to initiate more distribution partnerships in countries where access to healthcare is scarce, thus helping us to fulfill our mission, which is to improve access and quality of care of women and children.” said Dagmar Nuber, Chief Business Officer and co-Founder at Sonio.