Flywheel, a Twin Cities company that helps physicians and medical researchers manage imaging data, has closed a $54 million funding round with a new stake some of the biggest names in AI technology.
Minneapolis-based Flywheel announced on Tuesday the results of its Series D round of funding, which was co-led by Novalis LifeSciences and Nventures, the venture capital arm of AI pioneer Nvidia Corp. Other investors included Microsoft Corp. (also a big player in AI technology) and existing investors Invenshure, 8VC, Beringea, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intuitive Ventures, iSelect, Gundersen Health System, Seraph, and Great North Ventures.
Marijn Dekkers, chairman and founder of Novalis LifeSciences and former CEO of Bayer AG and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., will join the company’s board of directors.
The funding will fuel Flywheel’s growth in its two primary markets, public sector health care and pharmaceutical companies, while accelerating expansion in other markets, including providers, payers, system integrators and software companies seeking to harness the value of their data for AI development.
VentureBeat has a report on the deal, along with some insight on why AI companies are taking an interest in Flywheel, a company launched by a Stanford University researcher who needed a tool to better manage and organize neural-imaging data.
Researchers think AI tech has big promise in speeding the development of new treatments for patients, but organizing and imputing data into their AI models can take up to 80% of their time, leaving relatively little left over for analysis. Flywheel's tech is intended to speed up management and curation of medical images, accelerating the whole process.
In 2021 the company raised $22 million in a Series C round of venture capital funding.
