Healthtech startup Ubie bags $18.7m in series B money

Ubie, a Tokyo-based healthtech company, announced that it has secured US$18.7 million in a series B funding round from Suzuken, a Japanese pharmaceutical distributor. This follows the US$10.1 million Ubie raised in its previous funding rounds.

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The company plans to use the new funds to expand its research and development capabilities, hire talent for sales and engineering roles, and scale its products.

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Ubie CEOs and co-founders Yoshinori Abe (left) and Kota Kubo / Photo credit: Ubie

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Founded in 2017 by Yoshinori Abe and Kota Kubo, Ubie operates AI Monshin, a software-as-a-service product for hospitals, and Ubie, an AI symptom checker app for individual users.

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AI Monshin automatically asks medically relevant questions customized for each patient. It combines workflow-enhancing functions with clinical decision support to make medical record keeping more efficient. Ubie claims it could help diagnose 1,104 diseases and reduce interview time by around six minutes.

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Meanwhile, its AI symptom checker could help users understand their symptoms better by answering questions from within an app. The startup officially released the service in April in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Ubie said it also looks to expand its presence in Asia in the near future.

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Last year, the Asian healthtech sector saw nearly US$5 billion in total funding across 340 deals, according to a report. China, India, and South Korea were the top three markets in terms of total deal value. Meanwhile, investments in Southeast Asia doubled to US$266 million.