Ten million dollars, Samsung, and shiitake mushrooms: The making of Figure 1’s Series B round
The mission of Figure 1 is to democratize medical knowledge. With our newly closed Series B fundraising round, we now have another US$10M and the expertise of such investors as Samsung NEXT and John Hancock/Manulife to further that goal. Simply put, we are here to help healthcare professionals use their shared expertise to improve patient outcomes.
What does that mean, exactly?
It means that when a licensed practical nurse in Georgia reports a mass overdose in her area due to unidentified pills, a technician can identify the narcotic faster than the on-site forensic chemists. (It was Carfentanyl.)
It means that when a family doctor on a remote Pacific island shares an x-ray of a 9-year-old girl with a swollen face, doctors, dentists, and nurses all offer immediate feedback. (It was a displaced tooth.)
It means that when the British Institute of Radiology wants to help doctors identify swallowed dental work, they post images on their Figure 1 account. (In their words, “a dental nightmare, resolved.”)
It means when a leading neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System brings augmented reality into his OR, he explains the technology on Figure 1. (“It’s enhancing my role as a surgeon by allowing me to see what cannot normally be seen,” Dr Joshua Bederson said during his Grand Rounds.)
And it means that when a physician assistant sees a toddler with a mysterious, whiplash-like rash all over his body, she knows to ask if the child has been fed shiitake mushrooms. (The Asian fungus can cause a very specific allergic reaction, one highlighted by a family doctor on Figure 1 the week before.)
The money we have raised will help us bring cases like these to more healthcare professionals in more places around the world. And it’s cases like these that brought a new group of leading investors to our mission-driven company. That’s because these cases, and thousands more like them, illustrate the tremendous power of Figure 1 to:
Connect specialists around the world;
Identify rare conditions immediately;
Help healthcare professionals toward their diagnoses, and;
Teach the doctors of tomorrow with real medicine in real time.
Our Series B round is led by Kensington Capital Partners and includes Samsung NEXT, John Hancock/Manulife Financial, Hedgewood, and WTI. In addition to funding, these investors bring deep expertise to the table: Samsung is a global leader in both personal and medical technology, while John Hancock/Manulife offers insurance to more than 22 million customers. They join our existing investors Union Square Ventures, Version One Ventures, and Rho Canada Ventures, who all participated in this round.
With this new investment, Figure 1 will expand our knowledge network, adding to the millions of healthcare professionals who help each other provide better care. We’ll build on our case intelligence, finding new ways to extract value from the tens of thousands of real medical cases in our library. And we’ll continue to do this via a free platform, available to every healthcare professional, at any time of day and no matter where they practice.
Want to know more? Email us at communications@figure1.com.