AMSTERDAM, July 30 2018 — The SkinVision team is thrilled to announce the investment of $US7.6 million in the company to support their journey of bringing convenient, accurate and quick recognition of skin cancer. This funding round has been supported by current shareholders LEO Pharma, PHS Capital and a number of new high net worth impact investors.
This investment places SkinVision at the forefront of the integration of machine learning within healthcare. The entire team is incredibly excited as to what this means for the company and its ability to reach tens of millions of individuals with its life saving m-health solution.
Founded in 2012, SkinVision is an awareness and tracking solution that supports individuals with the early recognition of skin cancer. It is the first certified skin cancer application based on extensive clinical trials in partnership with LMU & Erasmus University.
This latest announcement adds to an already incredible year for SkinVision. In May the company won the Dutch Digital Health Challenge for their work with Dutch health insurer CZ. The prize and the hard work committed to further increasing the sensitivity of the service to over 94% has also secured deals with multiple major health insurance providers across Europe and Australasia.
The service uses clinically validated machine learning algorithms to check for visible signs of skin cancer, comparing lesions to the 3.5 million photos already checked by SkinVision dermatologists within its database. The technology indicates which skin spots should be tracked over time, giving a low, medium or high-risk indication within 30 seconds. All high-risk photos receive extra personal advice from doctors on next steps to take within 48 hours.
Speaking of what the funding means for SkinVision, CEO Erik de Heus stated that “This funding will be instrumental in reaching our target of saving 250,000 lives by 2027. We have seen huge growth in the past year and this investment will help us to expand our insurance provider partnerships, ensuring that as many people as possible are provided access to the technology.
We will continue to focus on our target markets UK, Australia and Europe with increased effort to become fully part of the prevention and health care-path for individuals and health stakeholders. Part of this includes localising our services for multiple countries beyond the English, Dutch and German languages now available.
Artificial intelligence has been actively used by SkinVision and offers enormous benefits in terms of health outcomes at reduced cost. This investment allows us to support the transition to value-based care offerings and will show just how large an impact the technology is capable of bringing.”
End
About SkinVision
SkinVision was founded in 2012 and is an awareness and tracking solution that supports individuals with the early recognition of Melanoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Basal Cell Carcinoma and Precancerous Actinic Keratosis. SkinVision is the first certified skin cancer application globally based on extensive clinical trials in partnership with the university clinic of Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich in 2013, published in the JEADV in 2014. The most recent data shows a sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 80%. Well above that of a GP (sensitivity 60%), a dermatologist (sensitivity 75%) and even a specialist dermatologist (sensitivity 92%).
The company has built up a customer portfolio of 1,200,000 users globally and a database of 3.5 million pictures of suspicious skin conditions. SkinVision is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
