Mary Lou Jepsen’s newest $100m enterprise leverages semiconductor physics, gentle, and sound to diagnose and deal with illness at a mobile stage.
Medical expertise firm Openwater has secured $54 million in new funding from a spread of recent and current traders, bringing the whole raised by the corporate to $100 million. The corporate, based by former Google and Meta exec Mary Lou Jepsen, is engaged on a platform that integrates semiconductor physics, gentle, and sound to diagnose and deal with illnesses on the mobile stage.
Openwater’s platform brings collectively high-resolution infrared imaging, precision-tuned ultrasound, and electromagnetic fields, to allow the real-time visualization and remedy of organic circumstances. The corporate claims its strategy permits non-invasive monitoring and focused therapies, providing the power to destroy dangerous cells, whereas leaving wholesome ones intact.
Likened to the best way a particular sound frequency can shatter a wine glass with out affecting surrounding objects, this selective focusing on has been demonstrated in preclinical and scientific research, and was proven to shrink glioblastoma tumors in mice and assist treat severe depression in humans.
By using an attention-grabbing open-source approach and using manufacturing methods frequent in shopper electronics, Openwater seeks to considerably cut back the prices and time sometimes related to medical gadget growth. The corporate believes it may possibly carry merchandise to market in below three years, a pointy distinction to the common 13-year timeline usually seen within the business.
“The human physique is an unbelievable machine, however like all machine, it wants the suitable instruments for upkeep and restore,” stated mind tumor survivor Jepsen, who beforehand based multi-billion-dollar non-profit One Laptop computer per Baby to enhance schooling in creating international locations.
“With Openwater, we’re creating these instruments, utilizing the elemental forces of nature – gentle and sound – to diagnose and heal on the mobile stage. Our purpose is nothing lower than democratizing superior healthcare, making it accessible to everybody, all over the place.”
New and current traders in Openwater embody Plum Alley Ventures, Khosla Ventures, BOLD Capital Companions, Esther Dyson, and musician and human rights activist Peter Gabriel, amongst others. In keeping with a press launch, Gabriel was instrumental within the firm’s creation and even got here up with its title.
“By leveraging current shopper electronics provide chains and an open-source mannequin, Openwater is positioned to scale rapidly and cost-effectively,” stated Plum Alley’s Deborah Jackson. “This might dramatically compress the standard timeline for medical innovation, doubtlessly saving thousands and thousands of lives and billions of {dollars} in healthcare prices. In a market hungry for inexpensive, accessible healthcare options, Openwater’s platform addresses essential wants.”
Openwater has established collaborations with a number of distinguished establishments, together with UCLA, the College of Arizona, the College of Pennsylvania, and Brown College, to validate its platform throughout a variety of medical fields.
