NEW YORK (360Dx) – Healthy.io said recently that it has raised $18 million in Series B funding to help scale up an at-home testing service that uses its US Food and Drug Administration-cleared smartphone urinalysis test kit for detecting kidney disease.
The funding round was led by Aleph with "significant contributions" from Samsung Next and other private investors, the firm said.
It anticipates using the funds to scale operations in the US and to continue rolling out its service in the UK.
The Healthy.io kidney testing service enables use of a smartphone camera to scan a dipstick and then send the results directly to doctors, integrating the results with existing medical records.
Healthy.io, which is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, said that the service has been assessed by Geisinger Health and the US National Kidney Foundation, achieving a 71 percent adherence rate among patients with hypertension who had never been tested.
In the UK, where Healthy.io and the National Health Service rolled out the service, 10 percent of patients who took the test were positive for elevated levels of protein, indicating a previously unknown kidney disease, the firm said. Significant cost savings could result from identifying unknown kidney disease in patients and reducing the elevated risk of complications, the firm added.
The funding round follows Healthy.io's receipt of FDA clearance, its inking of a global partnership with Siemens Healthineers, and its launch of a consumer-focused UTI testing service in partnership with Boots UK, a subsidiary of Walgreens Boots Alliance.Â
The digital urinalysis service is being used by more than 100,000 patients through strategic partnerships throughout Europe and Israel, Healthy.io said.