Sonrai Analytics, an AI Cloud Data Analytics business with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, raised around £2.2M in Seed Plus funding. Techstart Ventures, Co-Fund NI (run by Clarendon Fund Managers), QUBIS, and angel investors all took part in the round, which was sponsored by Forward Partners.
In addition to investing in sales and marketing initiatives to increase product acceptance by precision medicine companies, the company plans to use the cash to expedite the global adoption of its technology. By the end of 2022, Sonrai expects to add eight new employees to its Data Science and Engineering departments.
What does it do?
Sonrai Analytics‘ software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to find biomarkers, develop algorithms, and speed up the development of new medical solutions. After being spun off from Queen’s University Belfast, Dr. Darragh McArt and Dr. Deva Senevirathne founded the company in 2018. Sonrai Analytics is a cloud-based AI data analytics platform that enables businesses worldwide to transform the complex multi-omics data generated by precision medicine into actionable insights that improve patient care.
In order to give more precise testing and quicker results, Sonrai received government money last year to implement its AI technology in NHS cancer screenings.
Sonrai Analytics, CEO, Dr Darragh McArt said, “This investment enables us to focus on the growth of our customer base in the US, develop our customer success strategy and expand our AI capabilities to further enable discovery in healthcare. We are delighted to welcome Forward Partners to the board and feel their commercial insights will help drive the business to increased success.”
Luke Smith, Investment Partner at Forward Partners said, “We’re delighted to back Sonrai on the next stage of their growth to become a leading precision medicine platform. At Forward, we’re excited by companies that apply cutting-edge AI to solve big problems and make new discoveries. We’ve been really impressed by the strength of Sonrai’s platform and the ability to combine multiple types of healthcare data to gain insights into patients’ health. We see the great potential it holds to accelerate new drug and healthcare developments. Darragh’s expertise in the space has enabled him to build a very strong team and impressive traction with customers for a business of this stage.”
Partnerships
In order to scale operations commercially, Sonrai Analytics is forming more significant partnerships. Sonrai Analytics has successfully partnered with important healthcare organisations in the EU and the US with its platform.
Sonrai also counts Roche and the NHS among their model partners and has numerous oncology AI markers on a path to regulatory assessment.
