Axenya, an Uruguayan digital therapy startup, has just announced a Seed funding round of around $3 million from Brazilian venture capital Igah, Ventures, big_bets and Alexia Ventures. With the round, the health tech startup begins its expansion beyond its home country through Brazil. The company plans to debut next in Mexico, Argentina, and Chile and to be operating in all of Latin America by the end of 2023.
Founded by Mariano Garcia-Valiño, former president in Latin America of Bausch Lomb, a global eye health products company, and CEO of Biotoscana, a biopharmaceutical company that went public on Bovespa in 2017, Axenya is based on the principle of “software as treatment,” a concept that relies on clinically proven therapeutic interventions to prevent, manage, or treat chronic diseases.
“The software and the support of a team of professionals allow treating the patient in a complete approach, integrating health professionals and technology, always supported by scientific evidence,” explains Garcia-Valiño.
The newly raised capital will be invested in improving the technology applied to generate the clinical results and in developing products that combine high standard treatment and reduced costs, says the entrepreneur. “Digital technology in healthcare is thriving and we want to be a protagonist in this sector, especially in a region like Brazil that has so much potential to benefit from these tools.”
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“The platform represents what we understand to be the future of medicine, allowing precise and personalized treatments, besides giving the patient the protagonism in their treatment. We saw in Axenya a project with the potential to revolutionize the treatment of chronic diseases in Latin America,” said Thiago Maluf, managing director of Igah, Ventures.
Chronic disease management and wearables
Axenya has developed a platform with solutions for chronic disease management aimed at health plans (B2B product) and for professionals and patients (B2B2C product). For the patient, there is an app that promotes the control of several indicators related to the diseases. For doctors, there is a dashboard that promotes exclusive monitoring and offers indicators for each patient, with alerts on irregular measurements so that the doctor can contact the patient.
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The first solution developed is dedicated to diabetes. According to the startup, more than 20 thousand hours of programming were invested to reach a platform capable of integrating more than 450 devices to provide real-time data about the patient, 24 hours a day, generating information, alerts, and customized guidelines. Also in the pipeline are solutions for cardio-circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases, obesity, and mental health.
The platform also has integration with hundreds of wearables, allowing for real-time patient tracking, and has a team of health coaches who provide full-time support to doctors and patients.
According to the startup, the platform reduces the chances of heart attack by 14%, the risk of stroke by 12%, the risk of death from diabetes by 20%, as well as reducing the costs associated with treating the disease by 13%.
