Sydney-based Harrison.ai has secured a $32 million investment from the government-owned National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) to help fast-track deployment of the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the medical sector amid a growing shortage of radiologists and pathologists.
The move is also aimed at keeping the medical innovator firmly based in Australia.
The latest capital injection for the company, which counts Sonic Healthcare (ASX: SHL) among its investors, follows rumours that it was pursuing a $100 million Series C round last year.
Harrison.ai, founded by brothers Dr Aengus Tran and Dimitry Tran in 2018. secured one of Australia's largest ever Series B funding rounds totalling $129 million in 2021.
The NRFC, a $15 billion fund that supports Australian companies and projects that drive “high-value industry transformation”, sees the latest investment as helping to improve health outcomes for Australians though the company’s advanced AI medical diagnostic technology.
Harrison.ai employs AI to review CT scans and X-rays, a process that supports clinicians detect and diagnose medical conditions such as cancer more quickly and accurately.
“There is currently a severe global shortage of radiologists and pathologists, resulting in significant diagnostic delays that can have life-threatening consequences for patients,” says NRFC chair Martijn Wilder.
“Harrison.ai’s technology provides medical professionals with a powerful tool to detect and diagnose medical conditions quickly and accurately, alleviating pain and saving lives.
“Through its diagnostic capabilities, Harrison.ai demonstrates the incredible possibilities that AI and other advanced technologies that have been developed in Australia enable for improving health outcomes around the world.”
Wilder says the investment by NRFC is also aimed at ensuring Harrison.ai maintains its operational base in Australia, which the fund says provides local employment opportunities for Australian engineers, clinical AI experts and research professionals.
“We are grateful to receive this investment from the NRFC, which we see as an endorsement of the impact Harrison.ai is having in revolutionising healthcare through AI,” says Dr Aengus Tran, the Harrison.ai CEO.
“We believe Australia has the potential to lead in clinical AI globally. This investment empowers Harrison.ai to further our commitment to improving patient outcomes and accelerate adoption of our market-leading solutions in Australia and internationally.”
The Harrison.ai technology, which is used in more than 1,000 healthcare facilities globally, is said to be able to detect up to 124 findings on chest X-rays and up to 130 findings on a non-contrast head CT (computed tomography). The technology is currently supporting the care of more than six million patients a year globally.
The investment in Harrison.ai is the latest in a spate of strategic plays by the NRFC over the past six weeks, with the latest a $22.5 million plunge on Canberra-based hyperscale cloud computing provider Vault Cloud.
This followed a $25 million investment into space telco Myriota and, prior to that, a $13 million investment into diamond quantum technology company Quantum Brilliance on 10 December 2024.
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