January 13, 2022
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Toronto-based company, Future Fertility recently secured about $7.6 Million CAD in Series A financing to enhance the growth of its Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) solutions. The Series A round, which happens to be the Company’s first institutional financing, was led by Amsterdam-based M Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of German science and technology company Merck KGaA, and supported by Toronto-based Whitecap Venture Partners.
The IVF method of assisted reproduction was pioneered in the late 70s and has continued to evolve over the years. According to the Company’s medical director, Dr. Dan Nayot, the Company’s goal is to use AI to further develop fertility care, IVF outcomes and lower the costs associated with the process.
The CEO of the company, Diana Olusanmi, pointed out that presently, “there is no standardized visual assessment tool used by embryologists to evaluate the reproductive potential of a mature human egg,” which the Company refers to as “the most step-limiting variable in a successful pregnancy.”
“The current standard of care in reproductive medicine requires a visual evaluation of all important variables including sperm, egg, embryos, and endometrium,” Olusanmi noted. “However, to date, there has been no validated visual scoring system for eggs, which is important to adapt medical protocol and move the needle [on the] success rate.”
To address the issue relating to egg assessment as highlighted above, the Company’s software product, Violet, uses AI to detect the features of a human egg “that are invisible to the eye,” allowing it to assess the likelihood of fertilization and embryo development more accurately than current methods.
The Company plans to use its Series A funding to conduct research to further develop its Violet software and introduce new AI-enabled, non-invasive, IVF-related assessment products.
As reported by Betakit
Author: Bukola Adelusi
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