Revolutionizing Medical Imaging: Investing in Resolve Stroke’s Ultrasound Breakthrough
We are happy to participate in Resolve Stroke’s 2.2m€ seed funding round, alongside Quantonation, Kima Ventures, and relevant BAs. This partnership brings together a top-notch team of researchers and business professionals committed to lead the next medical imaging leap.
As generalist investors, it is always challenging to differentiate between groundbreaking advancements and incremental innovations when it comes to Deep Tech.
Throughout the fundraising process, Aritz (Co-Founder & CEO) provided a compelling vision of the potential impact their solution could bring to the market through novel data sets. It was truly impressive to discover the talent within France’s ultrasound technology sector and the potential for innovation within this ecosystem.
The outcomes of a world-class ecosystem
Indeed, the renowned LIB (Laboratoire d’Imagerie Biomédicale), one of the world’s advanced laboratory when it comes to ultrasounds, have dedicated fifteen years to developing ultrafast sonography. By combining this technique with microbubbles and ultrasound probes, they found a way to visualize intricate details of the brain’s blood vessels and gather insights into blood flow dynamics.
No other non-invasive medical imaging technique has achieved this level of detail before. This new method is called Ultrasound Localization Microscopy.
Seizing this opportunity, Resolve Stroke emerged as a spin-off from the LIB, driven by a talented team comprising Aritz Zamacola (CEO), Vincent Hingot (CTO), and Olivier Couture (CSO and co-inventor of the ULM Tech). Their mission is to harness this technology and apply it effectively in the field of medicine.
Meet Resolve Stroke
Resolve Stroke has developed both a technology and a device to democratize ULM tech in a medical environment. It is called the 3D ULM Technology.
Technology
The company is developing a 3-level proprietary layer on top of the ULM technology:
1. 3D: Current ULM solutions are 2D. The company has focused on 3D renderings in order to reduce the level of expertise required to generate actionable data.
2. Human application: Historically, labs have trained the ULM technology with animals. The company is training the model on humans.
3. Rendering Speed: The entrepreneurs have focused on rendering results in 20 mins vs industry standard of 6 hours without losing quality.
This 3D ULM technology is a type of ultrasound that provides detailed information about the blood vessels in the brain, such as blood flow velocity, vessel size, and potential abnormalities. It can also create maps of the cerebral vessels and perfusion indicators to assess tissue health. Resolve Stroke can use this for urgent and non-urgent cases, including acute mental change assessment, ICU follow-up, and stroke workflow. Finally, it also allows the startup to have a 100μm vascular resolution (vs industry standard of 1000μm).
Revolutionizing Point of Care Imaging in Neurocritical Care
A growing pain
Every year, 15 million people suffer from strokes, making it one of the leading cause of death and the first cause of disability worldwide.
In the United States, a stroke occurs every 40 seconds on average. It stands as one of the country’s leading cause of death, claiming over 140,000 lives each year. Moreover, it leaves a significant number of individuals with enduring disabilities, resulting in substantial healthcare expenses amounting to billions of dollars.
Timely diagnosis is crucial when it comes to strokes, as they are difficult to detect and can have devastating consequences. In stroke management, patients must undergo imaging to confirm and characterize the stroke before treatment with thrombolysis (drug) or thrombectomy (surgery) can begin.
Despite the existence of effective treatments, patients are too often deprived of them due to lack of time. Neither MRI technology nor CT scanners are capable of addressing this pain:
1. MRI technology: due to the complexity of the process, patients often experience longer wait times, with an average backlog of 4–6 hours.
2. CT Scanners: While they can provide more quick and detailed images, the toxicity of x-ray exposure and iodine-based contrast agents imposes similar limitations to MRI technology.
Ultrasound technology has become a popular option for point-of-care imaging due to its safety, compactness, and affordability. It is capable of capturing images of anatomy and blood flow in the largest blood vessels. However, the imaging quality of conventional ultrasound remains limited in neuroimaging due to poor image quality through the skull bone and has therefore made it impossible to treat strokes.
Market Dynamics
Out of every 100 patients, only three receive adequate treatment for strokes.
Proper diagnosis is lacking, and victims struggle to reach hospitals where they can receive the necessary care. This is the happening because of the difficulty in streamlining the process after a patient shows stroke symptoms
Still, the point of care imaging market for neurocritical care is evolving as existing devices (Start-ups & Incumbents) are educating the market on the importance of point of care imaging in ICUs and Mobile Stroke Units for prehospital stroke management.
1. Market Frustration: Existing devices are bulky, expensive, and have lower resolution compared to conventional devices, creating frustration in the market.
2. Increase in Demand: The prevalence of strokes is driving an increase in demand for point of care imaging solutions in ICUs and Mobile Stroke Units.
3. Network Densification: The need for a denser network of more compact and accessible devices with direct connectivity to expert stroke centers is increasing to streamline workflows and improve patient outcomes.
As the market continues to grow, there is an increasing demand for more accessible and higher resolution devices. The fundamental challenge lies in establishing connections between radiologists, emergency physicians, and primary care practitioners and the most suitable specialists for specific diseases. This connection is essential to enable effective care coordination, ensure optimized and consistent care pathways, and reduce variability in treatment.
Empowering Medical Innovation with New Data Paradigms
Resolve Stroke stands out from the crowd by focusing on pioneering a new category of data sets exclusively for the medical field. While other companies prioritize enhancing existing data sets, Resolve Stroke’s unique approach has the potential to disrupt the industry and attract new players who can leverage their specialized datasets for new use cases and drive a new wave of innovation.
Resolve Stroke’s Go-To-Market is on stroke management, but the impact of their technology extends far beyond this use case alone. By analyzing blood flow in the brain, Resolve Stroke’s technology can offer insights into an individual’s overall health and well-being.
In fact, there are numerous potential applications for their imaging technology. Imagine the possibility of assessing kidney health without the need for invasive biopsies or providing enhanced care before and after surgical procedures. Even diabetes assessment could be made more efficient and accurate.
By pioneering this new category of medical data sets and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, Resolve Stroke is not only revolutionizing stroke management but also paving the way for advancements in various other areas of healthcare.
With its technology, Resolve Stroke is opening doors for new players in the industry who can leverage their solutions to excel in their respective domains.
It’s an exciting time for Resolve Stroke and we couldn’t dream of a better team to tackle this massive opportunity!
Go Aritz, Vincent & Olivier!
