Signify Premium Insight: Venturing East: Medical Imaging AI Funding in 2020

Signify Research has recently published its report Funding Analysis for Companies Developing Machine Learning Solutions for Medical Imaging. Evident in the report is the fact that despite the global coronavirus pandemic, and the economic fallout that has ensued, there was still considerable investment into burgeoning AI firms across last year. In total, almost $600m of capital investment was raised by companies developing AI applications for medical imaging in 2020, an increase of $142m compared to 2019. This growth can be largely attributed to Chinese companies, which accounted for 45% of total funding raised over 2020, meanwhile, companies in other parts of the world have seen a marked decline in funding.  Last year’s funding took the total investment raised by medical imaging AI vendors since 2014 to more than $2.6bn. There are now almost 200 of these independent software vendors (ISVs), the majority of which have entered the market since 2016.

The Signify View

The fact that funding is heading from west to east is significant. When looked at in total, from 2014-2020, most funding has gone to companies based in the USA, with the Americas region accounting for $1,067m compared to the $973m that has gone to Asian firms. However, in the period between 2018 and 2020, this balance reversed with the Americas accounting for $670m compared to $800m for Asia. There are several reasons for this growth of funding in Asia.