Healum closes investment round to develop UKRI funded AI powered patient management system for people with long term conditions
MANCHESTER, UK, 25th March 2021 - Healum, a leading digital health company, known for developing a ground-breaking AI powered patient management system to improve health outcomes and quality of life for people with long term conditions, has raised funding from NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and Catapult Ventures acting on behalf of the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund.
The investments will be used to expand the company’s operations in Greater Manchester and to aid healthcare professionals in delivering programmes of remote care, support and behaviour change for people with long term conditions through its unique use of its AI powered clinical software.
The investment follows the backing of UKRI through a £530K grant to develop an AI platform that provides healthcare professionals with recommendations for managing patients with long term conditions at the point of care. The company is disrupting the way that AI is developed in healthcare, favouring an approach where AI is used to assist healthcare professionals rather than replace healthcare professionals.
The UKRI-funded project, under the Digital Health Technology Catalyst (DHTC) programme, part of the Medicines Manufacturing Challenge, helped the company to develop the machine learning algorithms that power recommendations in its patient management system by crowdsourcing the training of the algorithms using inputs from networks of healthcare professionals. This disrupts the approach to AI in healthcare by putting healthcare professionals in control of the development and training of the artificial intelligence and ensuring that trust, privacy, safety and diversity come first when using AI to support patients to manage their conditions. The company believes that this approach can help to overcome the issues around trust and algorithmic bias in existing AI solutions that have been developed for use in healthcare.
The investments will also help to bolster Healum’s existing clinical research partnerships with NIHR, Greater Manchester CRN and Vernova Healthcare CIC, with whom it is delivering a randomised control trial as part of its Innovate UK project to assess the impact of Healum’s smart remote patient management solutions in aiding primary care teams to improve health outcomes for patients with type 2 diabetes. Over the next year, the company will build on its partnerships across the region to launch a live learning research network that powers the inference models behind its integrated patient management system and care planning software.
The company chose Greater Manchester rather than London as a base for its future operations, citing the devolved and integrated nature of the region’s health and social care provision as the main reason for the decision. Anuj Saboo, CTO and co-founder of Healum, commented: “Greater Manchester is the only place in the UK that can provide us the data partnerships, research support, diverse population and integrated health and social care practices that will enable us to give healthcare professionals the control and trust in the unbiased intelligence that powers our patient management system.”
Healum was previously part of the Greater Manchester Future of Healthcare Programme run by UP Ventures Group, where the team came to understand the benefits of focussing its efforts in the North and were introduced to investors Catapult Ventures and Maven Capital Partners. Danny Meaney, CEO at UP Ventures Group said: "Congratulations to Jonathan and the team at Healum. It was clear to us at UP that Healum had a world class healthtech product as well as the drive and business intelligence to see it through to success. We are delighted to have played our part by opening the right doors to match the team with the right investors."
Healum’s co-founder and CEO, Jonathan Abraham, said: “We are delighted to have received investment from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund. This gives us the opportunity to build on our existing clinical and research partnerships in Greater Manchester, to tap into the wealth of talent in the region and to play our part in championing innovations that will help individuals with long-term conditions manage their health so they can live longer, more fulfilling lives.”
Chris Sawyer, Innovation Lead for Digital Health at UKRI said: “We are delighted to see that Healum has now raised further investment to maximise the commercial, medical and research impacts of its Innovate UK project, and has decided to play its part in driving health technology innovation as part of the regions northern powerhouse strategy.”
Gavin Bell from Maven Capital Partners said: “We’re delighted to support Healum as they embark on a programme of growth. The investment is a great example of local funds working in partnership to provide a growing business with a finance package to enable its expansion plans. We look forward to working with the team and supporting healthcare technology innovation in the North West.”
Vijay Curthan from Catapult Ventures said: “We are delighted to be supporting Healum on its expansion into the Greater Manchester area and on its development of the AI powered patient management system, which we believe will drive a paradigm shift in the manner in which healthcare professionals deliver holistic care to people with long term conditions."
Sue Barnard from British Business Bank said: “It is one of NPIF’s key goals to ensure businesses looking to scale their operations in the North have access to the right kind of investment, as in turn this will help to create new jobs and boost the regional economy post- pandemic. Life Sciences is a thriving sector with an incredible network here in the North, and NPIF is proud to support growing businesses such as Healum realise their full potential and welcome them to the Northern Powerhouse region.”
