Only have 1 minute? Here are 3 key takeaways:
- Czech HealthTech startup KARDI AI raises €1.5M from Bulgarian BrightCap Ventures, Czech Depo Ventures, Purple Ventures, and Soulmates Ventures together with the Romanian Cleverage VC and business angels.
- The follow-on investment is in addition to last year’s pre-seed round of €350K.
- KARDI AI will use the new investments to transform their product from a treatment to a preventive tool screening heart activity.
Founded in 2022 by doctor Tomáš Skála, serial entrepreneur Stephen Burke, technologist Pavel Digaňa, and product designer David Skala, KARDI AI aims to introduce an affordable diagnostic solution to the market, providing patients with a tool for heart healthcare that reduces the necessity for frequent doctor visits.
The solution offered by the HealthTech startup is software as a medical device that connects with different chest straps. This duo helps patients perform ECG recordings during any activity and over any period of time. After receiving the data from the belt, the myKARDI app evaluates them through advanced artificial intelligence software. The analysis is further shared with the attending physician, alerting them if cardiac arrhythmias are detected.
KARDI AI is currently working with more than 70 cardiologists and neurologists and has 600 users.
In continuation of their 2022 pre-seed round with Bulgarian BrightCap Ventures and Czech Depo Ventures, the new round was joined by angel investors, alongside Romanian Cleverage VC, and Czech Purple Ventures and Soulmates Ventures.
“Health tech is one of the focus sectors in our thesis. In KARDI AI, we saw a uniqueapproach for solving the pressing issue of remote heart monitoring: continuously recording ECG data that meets the highest medical standards in an affordable and comfortable way.
We are delighted to see KARDI AI’s progress since our first investment.” said Georgi Mitov, Managing Partner, BrightCap Ventures.
“We invested in KARDI AI because we believe that the inclusion of artificial intelligence will increase the efficiency of medical care, benefiting not only doctors but above all patients. The product excited us with its potential, and at the same time we were convinced by the experienced founder and his team behind the development.” mentioned Jan Staněk, Founding Partner at Purple Ventures.
To develop their AI components, KARDI AI collaborates with the Bulgarian AI consulting firm Childish.AI.
“We have developed a solution that enables remote long-term monitoring of heart activity and its evaluation through artificial intelligence. In addition to accuracy, affordability and simplicity are also great advantages. Anyone with a smartphone can use our
service, and it costs about as much as a family subscription to Netflix per month for full real-time monitoring.” added Stephen Burke, co-founder and CEO of KARDI AI.
With potentially 60 million people in the EU suffering from cardiovascular diseases, KARDI AI will use the new investments to transform their product from a treatment to a prevention tool.
“Among other things, the obtained investments will allow us to expand more quickly into other markets and move from a product for patients with cardiovascular diseases to a widely used tool for preventive screening of heart activity. If our product is available to everyone, it has the potential to save a large number of lives,” adds doctor Tomáš Skála, co-founder of KARDI AI.
According to data published this year by the European Society of Cardiology, cardiovascular diseases have an estimated economic impact of €282Bn, representing 11% of total healthcare expenditure in the EU.
