A startup that uses AI to provide insights from unstructured health data just raised a seed round, with plans to start selling its services to pharmaceutical companies in the future.
Cercle uses AI to organize anonymized data, such as a patient’s intake records, embryo images and medical history into a graph that clinicians and researchers can input questions and look to see how data points connect with each other.
Outsiders Fund led the $6 million seed round, with additional backing from FemHealth Ventures, CGHealth Ventures and Rogue Women’s Fund. It’s also received investment from former Meta executive Sheryl Sandberg and her husband Tom Bernthal’s venture fund, which led Cercle’s $4.2 million pre-seed round last fall.
Ashley FinchCercle plans to release a product where users can ask the AI questions about a database and get answers similar to how ChatGPT works next year, Chief Operating Officer Ashley Finch told Endpoints News. It has future plans to start selling that product to insurers, providers and pharmaceutical companies, founder and CEO JC Riveiro told Endpoints.
“We can take all of the fragmented, disconnected data, whether it’s marketing data for pharma or whether it’s insurance claim data for an insurance company. We’re agnostic on the data format,” Finch said. “We can take the data, merge it, and it easily extracts insights.”
Pharmaceutical companies can either use Cercle’s tech on their own data or draw comparisons against Cercle’s database of anonymized data it’s gathered from its other partners. For example, a pharmaceutical company can input the data they have and use Cercle’s technology to extract insights from it or answer questions users input to search the data. Another idea is to merge clinical data with other data points commonly found in customer relationship management platforms so that pharma companies can get a more holistic view of each patient.
The startup currently focuses on fertility data, with clinic networks US Fertility, Boston IVF and Eurofins Genoma among clients who are currently paying to use Cercle’s platform, which currently gives predictions of what to expect on patients’ fertility journey, as well as access to other business analytics tools. Finch said the startup plans to go beyond fertility to menopause, gynecology and other conditions related to women’s health.
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