Dublin-based AI medtech firm Deciphex bags $11.5m to fuel expansion

19 May 2022

Deciphex COO Dr Mairin Rafferty and CEO Donal O’Shea. Image: Frank Gavin Photography

Deciphex plans to expand further in the UK, Canada and the Middle East.

Irish pathology and AI start-up Deciphex has today (19 May) announced the closing of an $11.5m Series B funding round which it will use to launch its latest product in the US.

The round was led by ACT Venture Capital with Charles River Laboratories, Novartis, IRRUS Investments, Nextsteps Capital, HBAN Medtech Syndicate and other current investors also participating.

Founded in 2017, Deciphex has offices in Dublin, the UK and the US. Since its founding, the company has launched multiple products and services to assist in pathology.

The Patholytix Preclinical system is designed to accelerate the evaluation of drug safety and reviews of digital pathology specimens, while Patholytix AI uses AI to triage samples of histology images.

At the end of 2021, the company launched Diagnexia, an online clinical pathology department that provides access to remote subspecialty clinical pathologists for diagnostics and secondary consulting services.

Deciphex plans to use the funding to enhance the Patholytix platform and launch Diagnexia in the US. The funding will also support ongoing expansion in the UK, Canada and the Middle East.

“At Deciphex we’re continuously working to provide better solutions for world-class pathology care and better patient outcomes,” said Deciphex CEO Donal O’Shea. “The ongoing support from our long-term investors along with the addition of new strategic partners reaffirms the value we are bringing to the pathology community and the ambition of our future growth plans.”

The latest investment follows a previous funding round in 2020, when Deciphex secured $6.2m in a Series A round backed by Enterprise Ireland as well as a number of Irish and US investors working in the fields of life sciences and diagnostics.

“Deciphex has built a platform to support and enhance pathologists’ capability to deliver their skills at scale,” said Act Venture Capital general partner John O’Sullivan.

“Donal and the team created the product with leading pathology groups and the adoption over the past two years has confirmed the capability and opportunity to re-tool the pathology work bench.”

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Leigh Mc Gowran is a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com