Health AI startup Huma gets $80 million at near-$1 billion value

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Huma Therapeutics Ltd. has raised $80 million, valuing the startup at nearly $1 billion in the increasingly crowded health-care AI arena.

The Series D financing for the London-headquartered firm includes investments by drug makers AstraZeneca Plc and Bayer AG, as well as Japan’s Hitachi Ventures and Italy’s Hat Technology Fund, according to Huma Chief Executive Officer Dan Vahdat.

The startup, which has raised a total of $300 million so far, doubled its annual revenue to $80 million in 2023 and aims to report a profit by year-end, he said.

“Huma is Shopify, but for digital health,” Vahdat said in a video interview, referring to the e-commerce platform that helps smaller retailers design their own websites. “We want to democratize access to users big and small.”

Huma uses generative AI to help developers cut costs, speed up development and comply with regulations worldwide when building health-care apps. Customers can also use its features to configure disease management tools for patients with asthma, diabetes or cancer, and hospitals and clinics can use its generative AI service to cut administrative tasks and reduce staff needed to monitor patients with chronic diseases.

The company will use the new financing to develop its platform and expand worldwide, said Vahdat. Its technology is used by 3,000 hospitals and clinics, and the platform has 1.8 million active users in over 70 countries.

A growing number of providers are turning to artificial intelligence to cut costs and health-care delivery times. K Health, which provides a chatbot to patients before they speak with primary care-focused physicians, raised $50 million earlier this year, while non-invasive blood-testing company Karius Inc. and medical-image sharing firm PocketHealth Inc. have also secured financing.