Press Release – Wednesday May 11, 2022
VC fund UM6P Ventures invests in healthtech startup Deepecho
Improving Fetal outcomes with AI driven prenatal ultrasound
Casablanca, the 11th of May, 2022 – Today, UM6P Ventures announces a new investment in health tech startup Deepecho; an impact startup at the intersection of health tech and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that addresses one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
DeepEcho’s mission is to reduce the infant and maternal mortality rate caused by ultrasound diagnosis mistakes by democratizing access to fetal ultrasound with the help of Machine Learning (ML).
Deepecho’s team has developed a solution that tackles MDGN°4 of reducing child mortality rates which consists of an algorithmic model based on AI and ML that analyzes and makes a diagnosis on ultrasound scans to prevent congenital disabilities, premature births, and low birth weights.
Fetal ultrasound is an efficient diagnostic tool that can reduce fetal mortality by up to 20%, however, there is a huge lack of trained practitioners performing fetal ultrasound in countries of the Global South and a growing radiologist shortage in developed countries. Automating crucial parts of the examination will reduce workloads of trained sonographers by enabling non-trained medical staff to perform fetal ultrasounds with this technology.
“Access to early health diagnosis is paramount for society and humanity. However, quality and reach of the health supply chains are often constrained by infrastructure, supplies, and expertise. The DeepEcho solution aims at improving the accuracy of results and democratizing access to diagnosis. The founding team is solid in technology; and their entrepreneurial ability makes them stand out. They have been very successful at accessing and cooperating with Health-vertical ecosystems in at least two continents. It is an utmost pleasure to continue to work with them on the challenges and opportunities ahead” – Yasser BIAZ, UM6P Ventures CEO
“UM6P Ventures has played an instrumental role in making this first strategic investment in Deepecho. They have also been able to understand the Deeptech behind our solution and leverage the thriving ecosystem of UM6P to help us improve the pace of our product development process.” Youssef BOUYAKHF, Deepecho CEO
Technology acceleration and commercialization are among the top goals of UM6P Ventures. UM6P Ventures provides access to seed capital and platforms of excellence through its ecosystem to help deep tech startups accelerate their business and technology goals.
The solution developed by DeepEcho’s teams has the ability to provide Morocco and Africa with the most innovative medical diagnosis technologies at scale. Bootstrapped by AIOX Labs platform, DeepEcho has built the foundation of a solid DeepTech startup that includes access to data (+300K images & videos), strategic partnerships with 5 major national hospitals, an algorithmic model that has demonstrated convincing results, and a back-end and front-end product tested and recognized by its users. A strong and complementary team of founders with scientific and technological knowledge, excellent business sense and execution capability made this possible.
The investment will allow the startup to strengthen its core team and increase its pace in product development. Over the long term, the startup’s goal is to broaden its scope by automating more fetal ultrasound features and expanding its capabilities to other organs.
In addition, Deepecho intends to penetrate US and global markets by showcasing its solution via telemedicine platforms, cloud-based AI app stores, and portable ultrasound machines manufacturers.
About UM6P Ventures
UM6P Ventures is the investment arm of UM6P, founded as a vehicle for the university to advance entrepreneurship and accelerate scientific innovation in Morocco and Africa, backed by the OCP Group. It is a seed-stage ventures firm that caters to innovators and entrepreneurs in the fields of science and technology and invests in startups from their creation to Series A funding.
UM6P Ventures provides early ventures with advanced infrastructure, platforms, talent, and programs native to UM6P. It builds explicit pathways to transition incubated or demonstrator projects to investable assets and brokers subsequent funding in capital markets.
In partnership with its ecosystem network of programs including incubators, accelerators, and investors such as business angels and venture capital firms, UM6P Ventures provides an unmatched ability to fund, build and accelerate assets out of projects. UM6P Ventures has a robust ecosystem and an investment portfolio actively invested in AgroBiosciences, HealthTech, Energy, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Industry 4.0.
About Deepecho
Through high-performance Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms we are working on a software to prevent birth defects, address preterm birth, low birth weight, and their outcomes. Our mission at Deepecho is to work towards healthier pregnancies and healthier babies.
At Deepecho, we believe that when doctors partner with engineers and researchers we can develop tools that can reshape the future of pregnancy and prenatal care. We are passionate about using technology to solve human challenges.
We are committed to reduce racial injustice and inequity and are working towards making quality prenatal care ultrasounds checks easily available to everyone as we believe in health equity for all mothers. Deepecho provides a crucial opportunity to leverage the power of AI in healthcare to step up, innovate and effect change.