Alife Raises $22M to Advance In-Vitro Fertilization Through AI

Alife Health recently raised $22 million in Series A financing to advance in-vitro fertilization (IVF) through artificial intelligence (AI) tools.  

Alife will bring its first two products to market and continue conducting clinical studies for a third product with the funding. Seed lead Deena Shakir at Lux Capital, Rebecca Kaden at Union Square Ventures, and Anarghya Vardhana at Maveron co-led the financing and will join Alife's board of directors.  

Providers can use the company's first AI-based medical product, Stim Assist, in the ovarian stimulation process. During this process, the patient receives an injection of medication to induce the ovaries to generate mature eggs.  

Stim Assist helps clinicians retrieve the eggs from the patient, fertilize them, and implant them back into the uterus. The product gives clinicians information to support their decision-making as they recover the maximum number of mature eggs per cycle and reduce patient medication costs. 

Alife will also release a mobile app to streamline and organize the IVF process. The app will give patients access to a comprehensive platform that includes educational resources and organization tools for medication reminders, appointments, lab results, etc.  

And the company's third AI tool, Embryo Predict, analyzes patient embryos and helps embryologists prioritize them for transfer.  

"Artificial intelligence has tremendous potential to impact the effectiveness and equity of fertility care," Paxton Maeder-York, CEO and founder of Alife, said in the announcement.  

"Your fertility clinician can use our artificial intelligence software to craft a personalized, data-driven treatment plan. Our goal is to enhance clinicians' expertise with machine learning, helping them to improve outcomes and hopefully one day make AI-powered fertility care accessible for everyone," York continued.  

Over 15% of couples struggle with infertility and face treatment options that are expensive and inaccessible. And while three to five IVF cycles are required, the average cycle can cost nearly $25,000 in the US.  

Therefore, successful pregnancies from IVF rely on a complex set of clinical decisions to deliver the optimal care for each patient. But there is no unified technology platform working to optimize those decisions and improve the patient experience.  

Nothing will change the fertility landscape more significantly than improving efficacy per cycle and lowering costs, Kaden stated. And Alife is at the forefront of creating this value.