Foxconn backs digital X-ray startup Nanox's $26M round

Nanox, an Israeli medical imaging company, has raised $26 million to help fuel the development and commercialization of its "Star Trek"-inspired digital X-ray bed. 

The funding boosts the project’s total backing up to $55 million and brings on a new investor in the Taiwanese electronics multinational Foxconn. The consumer tech manufacturing giant joins Nanox’s previous supporters Fujifilm, SK Telecom and other private entities.

Nanox’s small-footprint system includes its digital X-ray hardware plus a cloud-based software platform that aims to provide end-to-end imaging services, including scan repositories, diagnostics review, image annotation and radiologist matching, as well as billing and reporting modules. 

One of the company’s goals is to be able to provide early detection services at a lower cost compared to traditional X-rays, as well as CT, mammogram and angiogram modalities, through a pay-per-scan business model. 

This will be aimed at the global market and underserved regions, with plans for collaborations with national and regional governments, as well as individual health systems, hospitals and clinics following completion of the product’s development and regulatory approval.

“We are honored to have Foxconn join other world leaders, Fujifilm and SK Telecom, in investing in our vision of eradicating cancer,” Nanox founder and CEO Ran Poliakine said in a statement. “Nanox has achieved a technological breakthrough by digitizing traditional X-rays, and now we are ready to take a giant leap forward in making it possible to provide one scan per person, per year, for preventative measures.”