Bertelsmann Investments acquires stake in AI-powered Israeli healthcare startup QuantHealth

AI-supported start-up company for clinical trial planning

18-Sep-2023
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Bertelsmann investments (BI) is investing several million euros in Tel Aviv-based QuantHealth, an AI-powered healthcare startup for planning clinical trials.

More than 90 percent of the drugs that make it to the clinical trial stage never reach the market. The cost of these trials is estimated to be around $50 billion. QuantHealth uses artificial intelligence to simulate hundreds of trials and trial designs to significantly increase a trial’s chance of success and speed up its execution. Based on 350 million patient records, QuantHealth can predict study outcomes with 86 percent accuracy.

Carsten Coesfeld, CEO of Bertelsmann Investments, says: “The QuantHealth team led by co-founder and CEO Orr Inbar recognized very early on what great potential Artificial Intelligence holds for the BioPharma industry. The services QuantHealth provides are unique. I am very pleased that we are contributing to the further development of QuantHealth with our investment.”

Orr Inbar, co-founder and CEO of QuantHealth, stated: “According to a recent Deloitte article, ROI on pharma R&D has steadily declined, reaching 1.2 percent in 2022, the lowest the industry has seen in decades. This decline is happening at a time when the need for efficient drug development has never been greater. We firmly believe that deep AI solutions like ours will dramatically enhance the success of clinical trials, and pave the way towards better and cheaper therapies for patients around the world.”

QuantHealth was able to raise a total of 15 million US dollars in the current round of financing. Bertelsmann Investments and Pitango HealthTech co-led the financing round. Existing investors include Nina Capital, Shoni Top Ventures, Boston Millennia Partners, Atooro Fund, and Renegade Ventures.

Thorsten Wirkes, Senior Vice President at Bertelsmann Investments, commented: “We are very pleased to co-invest in QuantHealth alongside Pitango and to further expand our growth unit Bertelsmann Next with an investment focus on Digital Health. The impressive AI technologies of QuantHealth have proven to save pharmaceutical companies millions, helping them bring drugs to market quicker and get patients the treatments they need.”

Within Bertelsmann Investments, the Bertelsmann Next unit focuses its investments on the fast-growing Digital Health, Mobile Gaming, and HR Tech sectors. Since Next was launched in mid-2022, €70 million has already been invested in the field of digital health. Further investments are to follow.

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