Our Investment in Viz.ai
Today, I’m excited to announce CRV’s investment in Viz.ai’s $50M Series B funding round, part of our growing Health & Bio portfolio. I joined CRV this year to build on our bioengineering practice, and partner closely George Zachary and Dylan Morris to invest in early stage companies driving innovation across the healthcare sector.
I was fortunate to angel invest in Viz prior to joining CRV and have loved working with Chris Mansi and the entire Viz team as they scaled in hospitals nationwide. The culture of the Viz team is exactly what I look for in early stage companies: people that understand the healthcare world as it is, but also have a vision for what it could be. The Viz team has the mission, drive and technology to make that vision a reality.
Viz meaningfully improves patient outcomes by identifying specific types of strokes called large vessel occlusions (LVOs) in the CT scanner. LVO patients often require immediate surgery, and prior to Viz, it might take clinicians hours to correctly identify, transfer and treat these patients. The Viz AI software allows clinicians to identify LVOs within seconds, evaluate CT imaging securely on their mobile phones, and immediately synchronize patient care — saving lives, cognitive function, and money. Importantly, Viz’s software delights key stakeholders in the healthcare value chain, streamlines clinical workflow, and aligns financial incentives.
My deep conviction in Viz came not only through the strength of the team and technology, but in the alignment of the product and the go-to-market strategy. Viz.ai’s go-to-market aligns incentives throughout the value chain: payers, providers (hospital and physicians) and patients. No one wants a stroke patient to have delayed or missed treatment because it leads to brain damage to patients, higher costs to payers, and missed revenue to providers.
Viz’s first product has expanded rapidly, and is now available in over 300 hospitals. By building a beachhead in stroke care and leveraging mobile-first workflow, Viz has been able to drive rapid adoption and is well-positioned to become the market leader in AI medical imaging in hospitals.
With nearly $1B of venture funding in startups building AI and ML applications for healthcare, it can be hard to distinguish signal from noise. Which products will be adopted, deliver value, and scale? In a short period of time, Viz has demonstrated that it has not only great technology, but a compelling use case that is saving lives and impacting the healthcare system as a whole. I am excited to partner with the Viz team in this next stage of their journey.
