Stealthy machine learning player A4L announced that it has raised CA$10 million ($7.1 million) to develop and test its algorithm for heart disease.
The Toronto-based company says that its proprietary variable extraction algorithm has analyzed and manipulated 2 billion data points in laboratory research, which was supported by the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovations Platform and the Ontario Centers of Excellence.
The data consists of "patient physiologic signals and clinical outcomes information to detect and assess specific diseases."
A4L has a U.S. subsidiary in Research Triangle Park, NC, where hardware development occurs.
The company aims to create noninvasive and cost effective diagnostic for several diseases.
To pull the feat off, the company has hired Don Crawford as CEO. He steered Sapheon to its takeover by Covidien, which is now Medtronic ($MDT). The company makes the FDA-approved VenaSeal system, a medical adhesive designed to close the great saphenous vein in patients with varicose veins and chronic venous insufficiency.
The exit resulted in up to $238 million paid to Sapheon investors and shareholders, according a to an A4L release. The company's valuation was not disclosed at the time of the deal announcement in August 2014, which was shortly after the announcement of the Medtronic-Covidien merger.
A4L has revealed few details about itself or the apparently oversubscribed financing round, which consisted of funding from private accredited investors.
A4L represents a new breed of diagnostics aspirants, who eschew the traditional molecular model for new-era approaches dominated by Big Data and artificial intelligence-based insights.
- read the release