VANCOUVER, British Columbia , Aug. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The latest transformational health technology added to the Relentless Venture Fund (“Relentless”) portfolio is California-based, B2B SaaS business Modality.AI (“Modality”). Modality has developed the first automated, clinically validated multimodal system to assess neurological and psychiatric states, in clinic and remotely.
Modality’s conversational AI system is facilitated by a naturalistic virtual agent known as Tina. Tina monitors neurological and psychiatric conditions: frequently, automatically, accurately, consistently. She guides patients through a variety of behavioral tasks such as speech, facial and limb movement tasks, all to replicate clinical practice.
Through web-based conversational assessments, clinicians and researchers are provided with near real-time objective measures of chronic disease progression as well as treatment response over time, paving the way for more efficient, effective, and less costly clinical assessments.
Relentless Managing Partner Brenda Irwin shared that “team investment interest piqued following the release of data from an in-clinic pilot with schizophrenia patients. We are on a relentless hunt for innovative care options across the spectrum of mental health disorders. Modality objectively measures negative symptoms, often predictive of suicidal tendencies, and a dataset difficult to quantify for clinicians caring for this vulnerable population. In addition, they have a growing dataset across a number of other chronic diseases including Parkinson’s and Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
The Modality system bridges gaps in patient access, optimizes patient-clinician time, and within the clinical trial environment, provides the missing link for accelerating trials and improving patient selection. All of these capabilities are made possible by combining speech processing, computer vision and voice dialog.
“We fine-tuned our product with a large patient population in partnership with institutions such as Mass General Hospital, UCSF, the EverythingALS Foundation, and the Charité in Berlin. Our patient engagement is fantastic, translating to completion and retention rates exceeding 80%, and our deep pipeline of partnerships spans a variety of CNS conditions,” summarized CEO and Founder, Dr David Suendermann-Oeft. “It is ideal timing to have Relentless’ investment. We are keen to work with a team uniquely committed to data-driven outcomes in new approaches to chronic care management.”
An international syndicate of funds and private investors filled out the Seed round that was led by Relentless. Joining the Board of Directors will be both Irwin and Relentless Venture Partner, Shane Luke, a veteran in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for both consumer use and at an enterprise level of adoption. Shane is currently the Head of AI and Machine Learning at Workday.
Irwin summarized, “Modality delivers a trifecta of health tech solutions for neurological and psychiatric disorders: digital biomarkers for use in clinical trials, remote patient monitoring and in-clinic assessment. The richness of their assets combined with the team’s technical prowess positions them well for a spectacular year of commercial growth.”
About Relentless Venture Fund
The Relentless Venture Fund (“Relentless”) is a health technology venture capital fund dedicated to investing in preventative and proactive technology solutions that optimize health, activity and longevity. As a technology and mission-based fund, Relentless is committed to the development of technologies, products and services that both promote an individual’s ability to stay healthy and active over an entire lifetime in addition to management of life with a chronic condition. Portfolio themes of emphasis for Relentless are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mobility and mental wellbeing. The portfolio is comprised of the most common health issues associated with aging.
The Relentless mission aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of “Good Health and Well-Being” (SDG#3). SDG #3 declares the intention to transform our world by ensuring healthy lives and well-being at all ages, reducing premature mortality from non-communicable disease through prevention and treatment.
For more information about the Relentless Venture Fund, contact Brenda Irwin at [email protected].
About Modality.AI
Modality.AI, Inc. (“Modality”) has developed the first multimodal assessment platform to track the progression of neurological and psychiatric diseases through the analysis of facial musculature and phonetic enunciation, using a virtual agent to guide participants through standardized protocols. Modality’s rich, objective, and accurate audiovisual biomarkers expedite the development of therapies for diseases such as Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, depression, and autism, as well as the diagnosis and tracking of treatment efficacy at scale, as used by some of the leading clinical institutions in the world, e.g., UCSF, MGH, NYU, Purdue, and the Charité. Modality was founded by world-class AI experts with over 200 publications and issued patents and several successful exits. Modality is venture-backed and based in San Francisco, CA.
For more information about Modality, including publications, product, and team, contact David Fox at [email protected] and visit https://hello.modality.ai.
