AI firm led by billionaire ‘serial entrepreneur’ acquiring radiology vendor TeraRecon
A Silicon Valley-based artificial intelligence company is acquiring radiology vendor TeraRecon for an undisclosed price, officials announced Wednesday.
SymphonyAI Group is led by billionaire and “serial entrepreneur” Romesh Wadhwani, PhD, and collects more than $300 million in annual revenue. Its focus is business-to-business artificial intelligence solutions, serving industries such as healthcare and life sciences, along with manufacturing, retail, oil and media.
“TeraRecon has demonstrated the value AI can play in the medical imaging market,” Wadhwani, a member of the Forbes 400, said in a statement. “We believe that TeraRecon AI technology can continue to deliver unprecedented benefits to doctors and patients and expand into new areas of the healthcare enterprise.”
Japanese radiologists first founded TeraRecon in 1997 and its since grown to become one of the top players in advanced visualization and AI in the specialty. Based in Durham, North Carolina, the firm now boasts nearly 5,400 installations in 74 countries, according to its website. TeraRecon also announced Monday that it had scored two first-of-their-kind patents in the U.S. tied to the use of AI in medical image interpretation.
In the announcement, President and CEO Jeff Sorenson said such copyrights, coupled with the backing of its deep-pocketed new owners, will help his company “think bigger and work faster than ever before.” In a video accompanying the news, Sorenson touted a “natural alignment” between the two partners, with cultures that seemed to mesh. This is the seventh AI acquisition in Symphony’s stable of vendors, which also includes Concerto HealthAI.
“Having been chosen for such an impressive and selective portfolio is truly an honor, and an ideal outcome for our employees, customers, and stockholders,” Sorenson said in a statement.
Following the move, TeraRecon said it plans to target other specialties beyond radiology and cardiology, with neurology and oncology at the top of the list. It will remain an independent entity following the acquisition, while Wadwani and others will join its board of directors, officials said.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.