Chamath Palihapitiya is one the most well known early stage technology investors in venture capital. And now, he’s backing a publicly traded company developing a new way to leverage artificial intelligence for breast cancer surgery.
What’s happening:
- Perimeter Medical Imaging AI (TSXV: PINK) has raised $9.8M CAD in a new financing round, which was led by Chamath Palihapitiya's family office Social Capital
Why it matters:
- Chamath Palihapitiya is one of the most successful venture capitalists in Silicon Valley and has been an early stage investor in companies such as Slack and Box (NYSE: BOX)
- Perimeter Medical Imaging AI has developed leading edge technology for breast cancer surgery that has been cleared by the United States Food and Drug Administration to provide real time visualization of excised tissue at the cellular level
By the numbers:
- Social Capital previously invested $42M CAD into Perimeter Medical
- Following this recent financing round, Social Capital’s equity stake in Perimeter Medical is now 32.7% of all the common shares outstanding
Going deeper:
- Through using artificial intelligence powered imaging technology, Perimeter’s medical devices are able to provide surgeons with more precise insight into whether or not they have successfully removed cancer cells from a patient
- Traditional imaging technology that is available such as X-ray imaging does not have the resolution that is necessary to be able to determine whether or not there are remaining cancer cells in a patient, which often leads to patients needing to have their pathology confirmed after surgery and waiting to find out if they will ultimately need another surgery to remove any remaining cancer cells from their tissue
