Flywheel Exchange, a medical-technology startup creating a data-management platform powered by artificial intelligence, has closed on $6 million in an oversubscribed Series A round, according to an SEC filing.
Flywheel President and Chief Operating Officer James Olson told Minne Inno that the company plans to use the new capital to increase its sales and marketing efforts. Flywheel also hopes to expand outside of the research industry, where it does the bulk of its business, and move into the hospital and pharmaceutical markets.
Founded about five years ago, Minneapolis-based Flywheel was created through a partnership with a Stanford University researcher. Co-founder Brian Wandell, a professor at Stanford, wanted a tool to better manage and organize neural imaging data.
"We were kind of the picks and shovels of the AI goldrush," Olson said. "We knew there was a need for a platform that helped researchers organize their data. There's a wide range of metadata out there and a lot of potential to organize it using AI and machine learning."
The National Institute of Health provides billions each year in medical funding and grants. Grant recipients are required to not only share their final results, but all the data collected during their research. Flywheel's SaaS platform primarily helps these academic and clinical researchers manage and share medical images and other data during this process.
Flywheel has around 30 research institutions utilizing the platform today, including Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Flywheel is also getting pulled into some hospitals, which also need to manage large amounts of medical imaging data.
"There's more potential out there beyond the academic world," Olson said. "We hope to work with hospitals and other businesses that also have similar needs."
Flywheel has around 30 employees at its office in Northeast Minneapolis. The company is part of the Invenshure Accelerator, which helps businesses license technology from prominent research institutions.
Flywheel previously raised a small round of capital through their involvement with Invenshure. Its recent round was raised from 40 investors, made up of mostly angels. St. Louis, Mo.-based iSelect Fund also participated. Flywheel next plans to raise a $5 million to $10 million convertible note round before expanding fully into the hospital and pharmaceutical markets.
