Early stage Healthtech company, BlueSkeye AI Ltd, has secured £3.4m in funding to pursue its mission to improve people’s quality of life through the use of its proprietary face and voice analysis technology.
The round was led by XTX Ventures, which invested alongside Foresight Group (through The Midlands Engine Investment Fund), Praetura Ventures (through Praetura’s GMC Life Sciences Fund), the University of Nottingham and a consortium of high-net-worth individuals.
As leaders in Artificial Technology (AI), which understands mood and mental wellbeing, the Nottingham-based company’s solutions are uniquely placed to serve the rapidly growing needs of the Digital Health & Wellbeing and Automotive sectors.
In the UK alone, one in four people suffer from mental health issues at some stage of their lives, at an estimated cost of £117.9 billion to the economy and from 2024 all new cars sold in the EU must have camera-based driver safety monitoring systems installed.
BlueSkeye AI’s trademark blending of advanced research into expressive human behaviour with specialist expertise in computer vision, machine learning and AI has many important use cases. In Digital Health and Wellbeing, BlueSkeye AI is poised to transform the diagnosis of mental health conditions and improve care, whilst in the Automotive industry it will significantly enhance safety and wellbeing for the drivers and passengers of vehicles.
One key technology created by BlueSkeye is the B-Social Software Development Kit (SDK) that can be used to give social robots, virtual assistants, and any other interactive interface the ability to read a person’s facial expressions, head actions, and social gaze.
The funding will further accelerate BlueSkeye AI’s expansion across both clinical and non-clinical health and wellbeing markets to transform patient pathways at scale. This will support service providers to address the global worldwide need for early diagnosis of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and the development of new products to support accurate digital diagnosis in the health and wellbeing sector.
As part of this investment, BlueSkeye AI will expand its activities with a physical presence in the North-West of England.
Founded in 2019, BlueSkeye AI is a spin-out from The University of Nottingham’s School of Computer Science. It was established by professor Michel Valstar (CEO) and Dr Anthony Brown (CTO), and chief machine learning and software engineer Dr Timur Almaev.
Professor Michel Valstar, co-founder and CEO at BlueSkeye AI, said: “The demand for alternative pathways to access mental healthcare is enormous, and continues to grow by the day.
“We’re committed to disrupting traditional approaches to healthcare to help improve the quality of people’s lives, and we’re particularly focused on the perinatal mental health sector.
“With the support of XTX Ventures, Foresight Group and Praetura Ventures, we’ll strengthen the rollout of new clinical trials and product development, and champion the benefits of technology for reinforcing healthcare provision on a national, regional and global basis.”
