Samsung Electronics Co. announced that it had invested in the Berlin-based global health company Ada Health. Notably, Ada Health operates the app Ada, which offers AI-supported healthcare services and user self-assessment. The South Korean tech giant’s US-based venture capital fund Samsung Catalyst Fund joined Ada Health’s Series B funding round.
Reportedly, Samsung Electronics’ former chief strategy officer, Young Sohn, managed the investment in Ada Health. Moreover, Samsung joined hands with Bayer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, raising around $90 million for Ada Health. In addition to the two companies, F4, Inteligo Bank, Mutschler Ventures, and Vitruvian Ventures participated in the funding round.
Providing AI Symptom Assessment Services
Established in 2011, Ada Health’s Ada supports an AI chatbot, enabling users to ask questions regarding health issues. Ada also provides users advice, guiding them through the following steps accordingly.
Ada Health also employs many physicians that directly answer users’ questions and address their needs through the app. Initially, Ada Health mainly focused on providing doctor support tools, including AI-supported health and symptom assessment. However, its competitive edge evolved into covering over 30,000 diagnoses classification codes and extensive medical knowledge.
According to Ada Health, at present, the app holds the most extensive medical knowledge coverage among platforms that offer similar services. Currently, the healthcare app offers its services to more than 11 million worldwide users across 150 countries. Ada also allows users to choose from ten languages.
“The idea is to help as many people as possible to get better access to healthcare around the world,” said Daniel Nathrath, Ada Health’s CEO and Co-Founder. “Our ambition is, in a few years, that a billion people instead of 11 million people will be using our technology.”
To this end, the AI health app plans to work with the right investors that could accelerate its growth path. Ada Health would also strive to give more people access to its technological benefits and offers. Additionally, Ada aims to use the accumulated funds to boost its platform considerably.
Supporting Healthcare Startups
Over the recent years, Samsung has been making significant investments in AI health-tech startups. During this year, Samsung teamed up with Bayer to participate in the British healthcare startup Huma Therapeutics’ Series C funding round. Huma Therapeutics’ funding raised around $130 million. Samsung joined the funding round through Samsung NEXT, another venture capital unit.
Samsung also invested in WELT, a South Korean digital health-tech startup, through its C-LAB program. WELT incorporates IT into healthcare solutions, developing digital therapeutics for conditions, including alcoholism and insomnia. Furthermore, Samsung offered its support for the digital health platform Noom through Samsung Ventures. Noom said that it would utilize the funds to expand its existing services.
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