Surge, a Franco-American start-up specializing in the prediction of post-surgical complications, announced on March 27 that it had raised 7.5 million euros. The funding round was led by Eurazeo, with the support of Kima, Teampact and Malakoff Humanis, as well as historical investors Boutiques Ventures, HCVC and 50 Partners Santé. This new financing follows a seed fundraising of 2.5 million euros, in September 2022.
Assess patient risk
The idea to create the start-up came straight from Stanford, where the two co-founders met. “Brice Gaudillere, my co-founder, is interested in how we can map the immune system to be able to derive precision medicine tools, explains Julien Hedou, CEO of Surge, interviewed by The Digital Factory. The idea is to combine this new expertise, both biological, on the mapping of the immune system, and artificial intelligence, to be able to develop these precision medicine tools.”
Advertisement
Concretely, the young company has developed a first product, PreCyte, which makes it possible to predict post-operative complications for each patient, before a digestive surgical procedure. “This first product takes the form of a blood test, which can be carried out before surgery, and which analyzes immune biomarkers”, specifies Julien Hedou. Thanks to software incorporating machine learning systems, patient risk can be assessed. Management strategies can then be decided after surgery, and sometimes even before, to prepare for the operation.
A clinical study with 283 patients
Founded in 2021, the start-up has already established partnerships with Stanford University, Foch Hospital, Toulouse University Hospital, AP-HP and the Rothschild Foundation. Other collaborations are being developed in the United States, such as with the University of Pennsylvania or that of California-San Diego. With these partners, the young company was able to finalize a clinical study with 283 patients.
“There is a blood sampling step, which will allow us to have a good quality sample for analysis, followed by the acquisition of the sample, explains the CEO of Surge. Then, the software part, which consists of the analysis with artificial intelligence of the sample and the acquired data.” Regarding data collection and analysis, the start-up has finished the industrialization phase, and is working on the integration between the specialty laboratory and its product.
Market your product in Europe and the United States
With this fundraising, the start-up wishes to market its product, both in Europe and in the United States. “Our idea is to have between one and three pilot hospitals to be able to begin commercial deployment, specifies Julien Hedou. At the beginning, we will open marketing to expert institutes, who already have prior knowledge of our system.”
Advertisement
Surge also aims to open up to other therapeutic areas, with new predictions. “Today, we have signatures, demonstrated at a lower level of scientific evidence, but which have already been published on the prediction in pregnancy, recovery after stroke or the optimization of treatments on patients who may have neurodegenerative diseases, lists the CEO of Surge. These are use cases which, tomorrow, will potentially be improved with the use of our platform.”
The start-up finally wishes to inaugurate its analysis laboratory, entitled “SurgeLab”, dedicated to the discovery of useful immune biomarkers, for this or that indication. Currently made up of 9 people, Surge hopes to make around ten recruitments during the year, to find partners distributing its solution.
Selected for you