Paris-based startup Sonio is on a mission to create better outcomes for expectant parents through the power of tech. The young company has just secured €10 million from the EIC as it plans rapid market expansion.
Healthcare innovation is perhaps one of the most impactful there is. Leveraging tech, many startups in this space today are coming up with ideas that radically transform lives for the better. One area that we are seeing exciting developments in is women’s health and family planning – areas that have historically been underfunded and underrepresented.
One major implication of the underfunding towards women’s health is the treatment and care available for pregnant people – impacting both the expectant apartment and children.
Paris-based Sonio has a plan to change this, by empowering medical professionals with better tools to improve pregnancy care. The startup has now secured fresh funding as it rapidly expands into new markets.
Funding details
- €10 million raised through the Europan Innovation Council Accelerator
- Comprised of €2.5 million in grant and €7.5 million in equity investment
- Comes after a €5 million raise this summer, backed by Elaia, OneRagtime and Bpi France
Cécile Brosset CEO and Co-Founder of Sonio: “Receiving such a significant funding from one of the most competitive accelerators in the world is a testament to the innovation Sonio brings to fetal medicine. Our hard work has been fruitful. I am now more confident than ever that we can help secure pregnancy care worldwide with collective and artificial intelligence.”
Optimizing prenatal care and treatment
Founded in 2020 by a team of entrepreneurs, and scientific, medical and tech experts, Sonio leverages a holistic blend of knowledge and expertise to improve medical outcomes. We chatted with founder, Cécile Brosset in August 2022 to learn more about it, unpacking her vision of improving care through the power of AI.
The Sonio team leverages unique expertise from the fields of fetal medicine, artificial intelligence, software development and imaging – taking a holistic approach to improving medical outcomes. Whilst the company was launched pretty recently, it builds upon 5 years of R&D and clinical development at Ecole Polytechnique, the PRAIRIE Institute and Necker Hospital in Paris.
It’s reported that 50% of congenital malformations are not detected before birth, and this is what Sonio wants to address. It provides a unique AI software that provides prenatal medicine practitioners with all types of medical, imaging, genetic and environmental data to optimize prenatal screening and diagnosis – a game-changer for the sector.
The comprehensive solution is used to assist all fetal ultrasound practitioners, from beginners to the most seasoned experts and is already being used by over 250 healthcare professionals.
This is achieved through the company’s two products that are currently on the market: Sonio Diagnostics, which was designed for expert diagnostic ultrasounds, and, Sonio Pro, which launched in October and is tailored to secure and bring more efficiency to routine pregnancy ultrasounds.
The Paris-based team has also signed several partnerships that are helping to fuel growth – this includes Samsung France, one of the main women’s health ultrasound manufacturers, but also with specialized distributors (Lifecell in India, Manager Systems in Brazil, Dynamic Medicals in Nigeria).
Now, with this new funding, SOnio will accelerate the release of new features on the platform, such as embedded image recognition and genomics. It’ll also be used to boost momentum for market entry into the USA and ramp up operations in Europe and India.
Dagmar Nuber, Chief Business Officer and Co-Founder of Sonio Sonio: “This funding from EIC will allow us to accelerate our commercial development in the USA and in Europe, thanks to faster innovation and better market access. We will also be able to initiate more distribution partnerships in countries where access to healthcare is scarce, thus helping us to fulfill our mission, which is to improve access and quality of care of women and children.”
Rémi Besson, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder: “For us this funding means more research, more clinical studies, more innovation, more patents filed in Europe and ultimately an improved quality of care for patients, wherever they are. We are eager to intensify our scientific partnerships with some of the best experts in Fetal Medicine and Artificial Intelligence.”
