DreaMed secures $3M and strategic deals amid CEO's reserve IDF duty
DreaMed secures $3M and strategic deals amid CEO's reserve IDF duty
The AI solution developed by DreaMed is designed to provide treatment recommendations to millions of people with diabetes who do not have access to endocrinologists.
Israeli startup DreaMed Diabetes, which develops the endo.digital platform that provides AI-based recommendations for the treatment of people with diabetes, announced on Monday that it has raised $3 million and signed several deals with health systems and companies.
VC eHealth Ventures, which specializes in early stage digital health investments, led the funding round. The capital raised is added to the approximately $20 million the company received in grants and other sources of non diluted money and $9.4 million raised through equity financing.
DreaMed managed to complete the round despite CEO and co-founder Eran Atlas being called up for reserve duty on October 8th as a military officer in the IDF for six months. Against the background of the war and military service, he and his team continued to promote a number of strategic moves to push forward the commercialization of DreaMed’s solution.
After securing their fifth FDA approval for the endo.digital platform, DreaMed recently signed a data integration agreement with Abbott, a leading medical device company in the diabetes sector. This agreement allows patients to seamlessly connect their FreeStyle Libre CGM data to the endo.digital platform via the cloud, enabling remote monitoring. The system provides personalized insulin treatment recommendations to the patient's healthcare provider.
In addition to this partnership, DreaMed has recently finalized several agreements with prominent health systems in the U.S., following the successful completion of pilot programs. One of the most significant deals is with Yale New Haven Health, which signed a comprehensive commercial agreement that includes expanding DreaMed's services to its family medicine clinics. Furthermore, DreaMed signed a development and license agreement with a global company, which will accelerate the global market penetration of its products. As a result of these developments, DreaMed, currently employing 20 people, is hiring additional staff and preparing to re-establish its U.S. branch.
“The last two years have been very challenging for the Israeli high-tech industry as a whole, and for the field of digital health in particular,” said Atlas. “We managed to overcome the difficulties of the coronavirus, the economic crisis and the war, and we are preparing for a large-scale deployment in the U.S. and then to other countries, with a significant revenue stream and the raising of new capital. We have the backing of the two leading Israeli HMOs: Clalit Health Service, which supported the technological development, and Maccabi Health Fund, which is one of the partners of the eHealth Ventures fund. The partnerships and commercial agreements are a jumping off point for the company's next stages of growth.”
DreaMed was established in 2014 by Prof. Moshe Philip, Chairman and Chief Scientist; Eran Atlas, the CEO; Prof. Revital Nimri, Medical R&D Director; and Ido Muller, Director of Data and Algorithms. The company initially focused on developing an "artificial pancreas" algorithm at the Diabetes Institute of Schneider Children’s Medical Center. This innovative algorithm continuously monitors a patient's glucose levels and adjusts insulin delivery in real time, commanding an insulin pump to either administer or halt insulin injections based on the patient’s immediate needs. In 2015, this technology was licensed to Medtronic Diabetes and integrated into their Minimed 780G device, which is now sold globally and has greatly enhanced glucose control for people with type 1 diabetes.
Building on this success, DreaMed turned its attention to another significant challenge in diabetes care. With approximately 540 million people worldwide living with diabetes, the number of endocrinologists is insufficient, with only one endocrinologist for every 6,000 patients. As a result, about 80% of diabetes patients (both type 1 and type 2) lack access to specialized care, leading to suboptimal treatment. To address this, DreaMed developed the endo.digital system, which uses AI to provide healthcare providers with recommendations to optimize patient insulin treatment plans.
“DreaMed is one of the most promising companies we have seen in recent years and it has already begun to realize its great potential,” said Talor Sax, managing partner at eHealth Ventures. “The company's technology solves a difficult global problem in the world and we anticipate that the solution will become a new standard in the market that will improve the health of hundreds of millions of people with diabetes and reduce the risks associated with the disease.”
