Spanish start-up closes €1.8m funding round to improve pregnancy outcomes

A Bilbao-based women’s health start-up has secured €1.8m in funding to improve pregnancy outcomes using AI.

Innitius aims to improve the health and quality of care of pregnant women and newborns by reducing the impact of pathologies such as preterm birth, induction of birth or cervical cancer.

Currently, 85 per cent of pregnant women hospitalised with symptoms of preterm labor do not give birth and receive unnecessary treatment.

However, almost 20 per cent of patients who are diagnosed as false threats of preterm labor end up returning to the emergency department, giving birth prematurely during the same pregnancy.

Innitius says the threats of preterm pregnancy cause hospitalisation for some 38 million women each year, costing the system €8bn for false alarm cases in the European Union alone.

The start-up is developing a technology based on analysing the consistency of the cervical tissue of the pregnant patient with symptoms and introducing this parameter into an Artificial Intelligence (AI) network, which provides gynaecologists and obstetricians with a diagnosis that facilitates decision-making.

The team aim to apply this method to obtain consistency in other women’s health pathologies, such as induction of labour or cervical cancer, and build the world’s largest cervical consistency database.

The funding round, led by Clave Capital and Nara Capital, will be used to advance the company’s clinical strategy and industrialisation process and accelerate the recruitment of new talent.

“From the first day we have seen how the group of investors that is betting on the project is a proactive human group, which provides not only capital to the company, but also support at the level of strategic decision making and key contacts,” said Rubén Molina, Innitius CEO.

“We appreciate the confidence placed in our project, and we will work to keep Innitius moving forward and achieving our next milestones of value”.

Santiago Lozano, funds director at Clave Capital, said: “Innitius’ values and propositions fit perfectly with the entrepreneurial spirit in the healthcare sector that we promote with the Innohealth fund.

“Clave Capital will provide not only money, but also knowledge, expertise, and contacts to help Innitius become a leader in the sector, thanks to our positioning and extensive track record in this area of investment”.

Josep Magdalena, CEO of Nara Capital, added: “Innitius has an exceptional team and at Nara Capital we believe we can support the company especially in the areas of clinical research and market development”.