Corsmed, a Swedish Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) software company, has secured $3.5 million in seed funding, bringing the total investment in the company to $10 million. The round was co-led by Luminar Ventures (which invested in Deckmatch and Yazen Health) and Big Pi Ventures with participation from previous investors.
This latest funding round will enable Corsmed bring its fast MRI scanning technology out of stealth and put into clinical use. The company also plans to file for submission with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and ensure the software is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant.
How does it revolutionise healthcare
The 2023 NHS Diagnostic Waiting Times and Activity Data report shows that over 25% of UK patients waited six weeks or more for an MRI, far exceeding the NHS’s 1% target. Healthcare often reacts to illness instead of preventing it. Prevention requires efficient diagnostics across biomarkers like blood tests, genome sequencing, and imaging.
While diagnostics have improved, MRI remains costly, slow, and a major bottleneck in preventive care. Despite being one of the safest imaging methods that provide rich, detailed health insights, MRI has been expensive and time-consuming to deploy at the scale needed for truly preventive healthcare.
Corsmed’s software remedies this strain by drastically speeding the scanning process.
Revolutionary MRI software tech
Founded in 2019 by Erik Jacobsson and Christos Xanthis in Sweden, Corsmed has developed innovative digital twin technologies that dramatically reduce MRI scan times from 45 minutes to just 2-3 minutes.
As per the company, this speed is unparalleled in the industry. While new AI-accelerated software solutions deliver 20-40% faster scans, Corsmed’s software Is claimed to generate several high-resolution full 3D brain contrasts in three minutes, ten times faster than the current clinical norm.
Unlike traditional, qualitative MRIs that rely on subjective interpretation by radiologists, Corsmed’s software produces quantitative MRI scans, with each pixel representing measurable data that can be compared across different patients and timeframes. By reducing the cost and time of advanced medical imaging, the medtech startup turns high-precision health tracking from an expensive privilege into an accessible healthcare tool for the broader population.
Erik Jacobsson, CEO of Corsmed, said: “Until we can make MRI regularly accessible for everyone, we’ll continue to see preventable mortality pile up. We currently live in a sick-care, rather than a healthcare, system. Corsmed aims to change this. Imagine a world where routine, whole-body quantitative scans can detect cancer and other life-threatening diseases at their earliest stages, giving everyone a fair shot at a long and healthy life. This is the future we’re building toward.”
Magnus Bergman, co-founding Partner at Luminar Ventures, said, “To democratise MRI scans is a cornerstone in the creation of preventive healthcare. We estimate that Corsmed can save tens of thousands of lives per day by enabling the detection of life-threatening conditions 10x cheaper than today. Together with AI-enabled image processing, this is an area that will see exponential improvements in the next coming years and Corsmed’s qMR technology will be driving that change and this industry.
Nick Kalliagkopoulos, Partner at Big Pi Ventures, commented, “Corsmed has the potential to fundamentally change healthcare worldwide. The team has developed a technology that can truly unlock preventative and personalised health. We are impressed with what they have achieved and are excited to join their journey.”
Noyal Mathew, MRI Practice Educator and Clinical Simulations Facilitator at the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust added: “Corsmed has elevated the standard of the MRI training programs at UCLH, ensuring that both staff and patients benefit from a safer, more effective imaging process. By providing staff with hands-on, simulator-based training, they gain a deeper understanding of MRI protocols and techniques, reducing errors and enhancing their confidence before they work directly with patients.”
Guy Drabble, Clinical Scientist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust MR Physics Group commented, “Corsmed has made it much easier to teach MR radiographers the challenging concepts of MR physics by guiding them through the effect of imaging parameter changes in real-time in a relaxed environment without clinical pressures. Over 90 MR radiographers across North West England have attended and reported significant benefit to their knowledge and understanding of MR physics.”
