AiCure, an artificial intelligence company connecting the world's patients to better treatments and improved health, has closed a Series A fundraising round with $12.25 million. The consortium is led by New Leaf Venture Partners, with additional participation from Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Tribeca Venture Partners, and Biomatics Capital, established by Boris Nikolic, former Chief Advisor for Science and Technology to Bill Gates.

Investor confidence in AiCure is driven by the platform's unique ability to apply machine learning, computer vision, and big data to health care. The patented mobile software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform uses artificial intelligence to visually confirm medication ingestion. Accurately measuring medication adherence is fundamental to both clinical trials and clinical care. Hundreds of billions of dollars are lost in failed trials and expensive hospitalizations because patients do not take their medications as prescribed.

'AiCure is the only effective and scalable platform that we have seen that solves one of the most significant problems in efficiency and quality of health care today,' says Vijay Lathi, managing director of New Leaf, who has joined the AiCure board of directors.

Prior to raising institutional capital, AiCure was able to make substantial technical and commercial progress due to $7 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. The competitive innovation grants were awarded to AiCure and participating academic collaborators to develop a platform that would 'significantly impact drug research and therapy.'

As a result of this work, AiCure's technology has been validated against drug levels in blood samples. Its feasibility also has been established across very different patient populations, from elderly stroke patients to study participants in schizophrenia and HIV prevention trials.

Beyond the NIH, AiCure has gained significant traction commercially. Pharmaceutical companies and government institutions are partnering with AiCure to monitor medication adherence and optimize treatment models. Payers are also taking a strong interest in AiCure as a means to increase medication adherence and reduce costs in their high-risk, high-cost patient populations. The combined revenue opportunity across multiple verticals sets AiCure apart in the medication adherence space.

'Accurately understanding patient behavior through artificial intelligence defines a new category of medication adherence monitoring,' says Adam Hanina, CEO of AiCure.

About New Leaf Venture Partners

New Leaf Venture Partners is a leader in healthcare technology venture investing. Our investment professionals bring a unique blend of technical, clinical, and operational experience to our investments, working closely with our entrepreneurs and management teams to help build successful companies. We invest in both public and private biopharmaceutical companies as well as healthcare-related information technology companies. New Leaf currently manages over $1 billion in assets. This includes NLV's funds, New Leaf Ventures I, L.P., New Leaf Ventures II, L.P., New Leaf Ventures III, L.P. and New Leaf Growth Fund I, L.P. New Leaf was formed in 2005 as the healthcare spinoff from the Sprout Group, one of the oldest U.S. venture capital funds. For more information please visit http://www.nlvpartners.com

About AiCure

AiCure's patented artificial intelligence technology visually confirms medication ingestion on any smartphone. In addition to pharmaceutical industry and academic collaborators, AiCure has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, including grant numbers 271201200020C-0-0-1, 271201300036C-0-0-1, 1R43RR032224-01A1, 9R44TR000873-02, 5 R44 TR000873 03, 1R43TR000190-01, and a sub-award on grant number 1R01MH109320-01. AiCure has an extensive IP portfolio, comprising 12 awarded and 45 pending US and global patents. AiCure was named one of '30 HealthTech Startups with Real Potential to Change the World' by AlleyWatch in 2015. For more information please visit http://www.aicure.com/