Clemens M. Tepel (DeepSpin GmbH)

Tepel, Clemens M. (DeepSpin GmbH 202010 Managing Director (CEO) + Co-Founder)

	Organisation	DeepSpin GmbH
	Product	magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
	Product 2	AI-based diagnostics

DeepSpin GmbH. (6/30/20). "Press Release: Berlin-based DeepSpin Raises Seed Round to Revolutionize Medical Imaging". Berlin.

Key points:

> Berlin-based MedTech startup DeepSpin is developing the world’s first portable, ultra-low-cost MRI system. DeepSpin’s technology has the potential to completely transform Medical Imaging bringing MRI into new medical domains and making it accessible to a much broader patient population.

> DeepSpin’s founders Clemens Tepel, a former McKinsey consultant, and Pedro Freire Silva, a PhD researcher from KIT, met during the Entrepreneur First program and were quickly able to prove initial technical feasibility and commercial interest for their technology.

> Despite the current environment, DeepSpin closed their seed funding round successfully led by APEX Digital Health with participation of existing investors Entrepreneur First and SOSV. The funds will be used to expand their team and build the next iteration of their AI-powered MRI imaging algorithm and respective hardware.

DeepSpin, the Berlin-based MedTech startup aiming to make Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) universally accessible, raised a seed round from APEX Digital Health, UK-based Entrepreneur First and US-based SOSV as well as several high caliber business angels.

DeepSpin is developing the world’s first portable, ultra-low-cost MRI system: “MRI is a highly valuable diagnostics tool as it can provide information beyond that of all other imaging modalities. However, despite its high clinical value, MRI is often not used as current MRI-systems cost several million Euros, need specifically shielded rooms and require a specialized operator.”, says Co-founder and CEO Clemens Tepel.

DeepSpin removes all these constraints through their proprietary technology, which leverages artificial intelligence. “Instead of combining highly expensive hardware with standard software, as it is done on conventional MRI scanners, we will be able to obtain the same clinical information by applying very sophisticated algorithms on simplified hardware, thereby reducing our system’s cost by orders of magnitude.”, says Pedro Freire Silva, Co-Founder and CTO of DeepSpin, who did his PhD research on small-scale, mass-manufacturable MRI systems.

While the use of artificial intelligence for the interpretation of MRI-scans has been proliferating in recent years, there has not been much innovation on the more fundamental level of how the scan is actually acquired. “We are seeing a lot of incremental advancements in the areas of scan acquisition times, patient comfort and scan quality, but what is really exciting about DeepSpin’s technology is that they reimagine the system from the ground up.”, says Walter Märzendorfer, the former president of Diagnostic Imaging at Siemens Healthineers and a leading expert in the MRI industry.

The step change in cost enabled through DeepSpin’s technology will enable the company to bring MRI into new medical domains and geographies, which cannot currently afford this imaging modality. “One aspect that we find particularly interesting about DeepSpin, besides their impressive IP, is the significant clinical and economic impact that the company can have. Their technology will enable MRI being available to a much broader patient population and also support new medical applications.”, says Dr. Gordon Euller, a board-certified Radiologist and Lead-Partner of APEX Digital Health.

DeepSpin’s founders first met last September during the Entrepreneur First program and just 9 months later closed their seed round. “One thing that we found particularly impressive about the founding team of DeepSpin is their clear focus and the strong operational pace at which they have developed the company. For this reason, we decided to double down on the current round, following after our pre-seed investment in January.”, says Matt Clifford, co-founder and CEO at Entrepreneur First.

With the newly acquired funding, DeepSpin will expand its development team and build the next iteration of their AI-powered MRI imaging algorithm and hardware. Clemens Tepel says: “We are excited to be partnering with the experienced DeepTech investors at APEX, Entrepreneur First and SOSV, as well as our business angels, and will now use these resources to lift our technology to the next level.”

About DeepSpin

DeepSpin is developing a next-generation, AI-powered MRI imaging machine at a fraction of the cost, weight and size of existing systems. This technical revolution is only made possible through a new antenna technology and its AI-controlled operation, which DeepSpin is currently patenting. Through their proprietary technology, DeepSpin will be making MRI accessible to every patient globally, making it the imaging standard of care in a myriad of previously inaccessible medical domains.

About APEX Ventures

APEX Ventures is a Europe based company builder backing technology ventures with a focus on unique and defendable intellectual property and above average market potential. APEX funds have completed investments in Europe and in the U.S., among others in the fields of A.I. for medical applications, mobile forensics and insurance for autonomous vehicles. APEX Digital Health, the 2nd fund under the APEX umbrella, invests in promising early-stage companies in the healthcare sector. To identify talented teams and support their ideas at an early stage, APEX Digital Health closely works with academic institutions, entrepreneurship programs and other international VC partners.

About SOSV

SOSV — The Accelerator VC — is a $700M venture fund operating global accelerator programs: HAX (Shenzhen/San Francisco) for hardware, IndieBio (San Francisco/NYC) for life sciences, Chinaccelerator (Shanghai) and MOX (Taipei) for cross-border internet, Food-X (NYC) for the business of food, and dlab (NYC) for blockchain. SOSV invests in over 150 companies per year and over its two-decade history has a track record that puts it in the top 10% of VC funds in the world.

About Entrepreneur First

Entrepreneur First (EF) is a talent investor, founded in London in 2011 by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck to support the world’s most ambitious individuals build globally important companies.

EF’s bespoke programme, the first of its kind in the world, invests time and money in outstanding individuals, helping them to find a co-founder, develop an idea and create a high-growth technology company from scratch. To date EF has helped over 2000 individuals build more than 300 companies, with a total valuation of $2 billion. EF’s companies have been funded by many of the leading venture investors in Europe, Asia and Silicon Valley.

EF itself is backed by some of the world’s best investors, including the founders of LinkedIn, DeepMind and PayPal and runs cohorts in Toronto, London, Singapore, Berlin, Paris and Bangalore. Major exits to date include Avocarrot, Represent, Bloomsbury.ai, and Magic Pony Technology, which sold to twitter for a reported $150m just 18 months after the founders met on EF.