Radiologist-led breast imaging AI vendor Clairity raises $43M
Clairity, a breast imaging artificial intelligence firm founded by a Boston radiologist, has raised $43 million in new funding, the company announced Thursday.
Investment firms Ace Global Equity and Santé Ventures led the Series B financing round, alongside the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and others. Founded in 2020 by Mass General’s Constance “Connie” Lehman, MD, PhD, Clairity offers the first AI tool to predict five-year breast cancer risk from routine mammograms.
It scored de novo authorization for Clairity Breast from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May and now is accelerating commercialization and expanding partnerships using the new funds.
“[The Breast Cancer Research Foundation] has long believed that prevention is the ultimate cure,” President and CEO Donna McKay said in a statement Nov. 13. “Clairity’s technology embodies that vision, turning existing imaging infrastructure into a proactive tool for risk stratification toward earlier interventions that can save lives.”
The company said the funds also will drive continued development of its broader platform focused on predictive health. After the FDA authorization, Clairity has started rolling out its breast software to marquee health systems in the U.S. It also is expanding its development pipeline to include new AI predictive offerings for other major diseases, using the same deep learning framework. The Series B funds additionally will help it pursue reimbursement and seek partnerships to expand access.
“For decades, we have relied on mammography to detect cancer only after it is visible,” Dr. Lehman said in the announcement. “With Clairity Breast, we can now use the same images to predict who may be at risk over the next five years, supporting earlier intervention, fewer late-stage diagnoses, and more lives saved. This is the future of breast cancer care: predictive, personalized and preventive.”
TCB Capital Advisors served as exclusive financial advisor to Clairity in the transaction.
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.