Sonrai Analytics CEO Darragh McArt. Image: Lauren Martin
Following previous seed funding in 2020, Sonrai will use the fresh financing to expand its US customer base.
Belfast-based Sonrai Analytics has raised £2.175m in funding to accelerate the global adoption of its technology for the healthcare industry.
The start-up applies AI and deep learning to develop bespoke applications and interfaces to enable health, biotech and pharma organisations to filter and transform datasets in real time.
It also offers data visualisation and predictive analytics to workflows to accelerate organisational processes and improve performance.
Founded in 2018 by Dr Darragh McArt and Deva Senevirathne, Sonrai Analytics is a spin-out from Queen’s University Belfast.
In March 2020, it raised £700,000 in seed funding led by Techstart Ventures.
The new seed-plus funding is expected to help Sonrai Analytics reach more companies globally to translate precision medicine’s complex data into real insights, leading to more personalised treatments for patients.
McArt, who is the CEO of Sonrai, said the investment enables the start-up to focus on the growth of its customer base in the US, develop its customer success strategy and expand its AI capabilities targeting the healthcare industry.
It will invest in sales and marketing efforts to rapidly scale product adoption by precision medicine companies. It will also expand its data science and engineering teams, with plans to hire an additional eight people by the end of 2022.
The funding round was led by London-based venture capital firm Forward Partners, which specialises in the tech sector.
Existing institutional investors Techstart Ventures, Co-Fund NI (managed by Clarendon Fund Managers), QUBIS (the commercialisation arm of Queen’s University) and angel investors also backed the round.
“We’ve been really impressed by the strength of Sonrai’s platform and the ability to combine multiple types of healthcare data to gain insights into patients’ health. We see the great potential it holds to accelerate new drug and healthcare developments,” said Luke Smith, investment partner at Forward Partners.
“Darragh’s expertise in the space has enabled him to build a very strong team and impressive traction with customers for a business of this stage.”
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
