Visby Medical partners with Google Cloud, ChatGPT is coming to UCSF, Cornerstone Robotics raises $200M

Healthtech and edtech are two of the fastest growing sectors, with the healthtech market size to reach $3.1 billion by 2033, while the global education technology market size is projected to reach $348.41 billion by 2030.

Each week will do a roundup of the top news, fundings, and IPOs from these two sectors.

Top News  

• Visby Medical, in partnership with Google Cloud, which is supporting Visby’s vision to transform healthcare access, providing AI-ready infrastructure for its digital platform., announced the national launch of an FDA-authorized at-home PCR test for sexually transmitted infections in women, along with virtual care support and rapid home delivery
• UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood announced in his annual State of the University address, an enterprise version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT will be available at UCSF early next year. ChatGPT Enterprise is a data-secure AI platform powered by OpenAI’s latest AI models, including GPT-5, and the deployment will have enterprise-grade safeguards, including enhanced HIPAA compliance support

AI News

• The Mount Sinai Health System partnered with Microsoft to implement Dragon Copilot, a new AI clinical assistant designed to streamline clinical documentation, surface critical information, and automate administrative tasks across care settings
• RELI Group, a partner to federal agencies in health and security, partnered with Basys.ai, a provider of healthcare AI solutions
• Vitality, which provides personal, business, and corporate health insurance solutions, partnered with Google to launch Vitality AI, which integrates Google Cloud’s AI and data analytics, with Vitality’s health datasets and behavior-change expertise
• Optain Health, a healthcare technology company applying artificial intelligence, robotic retinal imaging, and teleophthalmology to detect eye and systemic disease earlier,  acquired EyePACS, a teleophthalmology network
• Anthropic and Iceland’s Ministry of Education and Children partnered to bring Claude to teachers across the nation, launching a national AI education pilot to give teachers from every region of Iceland access to advanced AI tools as the country explores how artificial intelligence can transform education
• Coe College partnered with the Google AI for Education Accelerator to provide AI tools, resources and training for Kohawks, helping to prepare them for an increasingly AI-driven professional landscape
• Cengage Group, an EdTech company that provides secondary and higher education to learners at an affordable price, partnered with Amazon Web Services, combining AWS’s artificial intelligence technologies with Cengage Group’s learning design expertise
• SimpliTaught, a provider of generative AI-based education technology, partnered with the Zanzibar Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to implement a major digital learning program across public schools

Late Stage Fundings:

Healthtech:

• Surgical robotics maker Cornerstone Robotics raised $200 million in funding in a round led by the Hong Kong Investment Corporation, with existing investors Qiming Venture Partners, Daohe Investment, Gaorong Capital, and ZhenFund also participating
• Iambic, a clinical-stage life science and technology company developing novel medicines using its AI-driven discovery and development platform, raised over $100 million in a round from Abingworth, Alexandria Venture Investments, Alumni Ventures, ARK, Ascenta, Catalio, Everbright Biofund, Freeflow Ventures, Illumina Ventures, Mubadala, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Qatar Investment Authority, Regeneron Ventures, Sequoia, Tao Capital Partners, Terra Magnum Capital Partners, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and others
• 4TEEN4 Pharmaceuticals GmbH, developer of therapies and biomarkers for diagnosis, prediction, and treatment of circulatory shock, raised $64 million from existing and new investors

EdTech:

• Miko, a consumer robotics lab that develops artificial intelligence robots to educate and entertain children, raised Series D funding from iHeartMedia

Early Stage Fundings  

Healthtech:

• Sovato, which empowers healthcare organizations to implement and scale remote robotic surgery and procedure programs, raised a Series B round of funding from undisclosed investors
• NextSense, developer of wireless consumer EEG earbuds that translate real-time brain activity into actionable insights that help people sleep better, focus longer, and recharge more effectively, raised a $16 million Series A funding round led by Ascension Ventures, with participation from Satori Neuro and Corundrum Neuroscience Fund. Individual investors include David Eagleman, Esther Dyson, and Bradley Horowitz
• myTomorrows, a company that helps connect patients to clinical trial sites, raised $29 million from Avego
• Beacon Biosignals, a neurotechnology company powering AI-driven diagnostics and precision medicines for the brain, raised an $86 million Series B from Innoviva, Google Ventures, Nexus NeuroTech Ventures, S32, Catalio Capital Management, and Takeda, with continued support from General Catalyst, Logos Capital, Casdin Capital, and Indicator Ventures
• House Rx, a company focused on making specialty medications more accessible and affordable for patients, raised $55 million in Series B equity and debt led by New Enterprise Associates and Town Hall Ventures and included participation from LRVHealth, First Round Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Silicon Valley Bank
• Clairity, an AI-driven precision health company pioneering image-based risk prediction, raised a $43 million Series B financing led by ACE Global Equity and Santé Ventures, with continued participation from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and several new investors
• T-Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing next-generation T cell receptor (TCR) therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune disease, raised $32 million from new investors Tencent and BGF, joining existing major shareholders Sofinnova Partners, F-Prime, Digitalis Ventures, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Sanofi Ventures and the University of Cambridge Venture Fund
• Onchilles Pharma, a biotech company developing next-generation cytotoxic therapeutics that harness the ELANE pathway, raised a $25 million Series A1 financing from new investors Invivium Capital, Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, and UCM Ventures, along with existing investors LYZZ Capital Advisors and Lincoln Park Capital Fund
• Digitail, a provider of AI-powered practice management software for veterinary clinics, raised a $23 million Series B investment led by Five Elms Capitalwith participation from existing investors Atomico, Partech, Byfounders, Gradient, and others
• TandemAI, developer of a drug discovery platform, which combines advanced AI, physics-based computational methods, and wet lab capabilities, raised a $22 million Series A extension from both new and existing investors including V-Capital and KHK Fund
• irometix AG, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering fully synthetic vaccines, raised a $15 million financing round from existing shareholders
• Rion Vet, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering fully synthetic vaccines, raised a $15 million Series A led by Mark Herthel
• KÄÄPÄ Biotech, a biotechnology company specialised in researching, innovating, developing, producing and selling functional mushroom products, raised a €9 million round led by PeakBridge, along with Zintinus
• MindTalk is an AI-powered mental health platform, raised $7.3 million from The Cadabams Group 

Edtech:

• Filiz, an startup which helps private schools digitalise and streamline their operations, raised €6 million from Hexa

Seed Fundings  

Healthtech:

• Modulight Biotherapeutics, developer of novel optogenetic platform for the treatment of neurological disorders, raised a $12.2 million seed round led by Jibe Ventures and LocalGlobe, with participation from Nexus Neurotech Ventures, RedSeed VC, Secret Chord Ventures, Fresh Fund, Saras Capital, SilverArc Capital and Sha’ar Mivnim
• Scripta Therapeutics, which combines AI, imaging, and patient-derived models to create and modulate disease maps based on transcriptional networks, raised a $12 million seed round led jointly by Oxford Science Enterprises and Apollo Health Ventures, with further investment from AlbionVC, YZR Capital, and Parkwalk Advisors, and support from Oxford University Innovation
• Guideways AI, a platform that automates regulatory, quality, and reimbursement processes for medical technology firms, raised a pre-seed funding round led by Healthy.Capital together with Rising Star Venture Partners

Edtech:

• Tetr College, a global business school, raised an $18 million funding round co-led by Owl Ventures and Bertelsmann India Investments
• Komodo, which provides schools with wellbeing and mental health solutions to better support and care for its students, raised NZD $1.2 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Hiraya Ventures

Going public

• PhysicsWallah, known for its digital courses, physical centres, and hybrid programs, with a strong focus on India’s national-level engineering and medical exams as well as government exam prep, raised raised Rs 1,563 crore (USD$176.4m) from anchor investors at Rs 109 per share making it India’s first pure-play edtech company to go public

Policy and government

• A federal judge ruled that the partisan language added to out-of-office email messages of furloughed Education Department employees violates their First Amendment rights. The ruling is in response to a lawsuit filed last month against the Trump administration by members of the American Federation of Government Employees over the alteration of employees’ emails without their consent. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper on Friday characterized the message, which said the contacted employee was furloughed due to “Democrat Senators” blocking a Republican funding bill, as “commandeering…employees’ email accounts to broadcast partisan messages.”
• Republicans on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee are circulating a bill that would mimic President Donald Trump’s proposal to redirect health insurance subsidies directly to individuals, according to a person granted anonymity to share direct knowledge of the private directions. The legislation, previously introduced by Florida Republican Reps. Kat Cammack and Greg Steube, would give enrollees in the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges the ability to elect to receive a portion of financial assistance from insurers directly in their tax-advantaged health savings accounts. Those HSA contributions would be in lieu of assistance that insurers would usually apply on the back end to the out-of-pocket health costs for low-income individuals

Random news

• This fruit curiously smells like baking bread and tastes like potatoes –– and it might also provide a means to help feed communities amid drought and famine. Breadfruit, despite its name, is not made of bread. It’s a tall tree native to islands in the Pacific that produces a starchy fruit, similar to a jackfruit. Researchers at Northwestern University have been studying breadfruit because they believe it could help feed the world as our more vulnerable crops are plunged into jeopardy due to rising global temperatures 

(Image source: etimg.com)