Harrison.ai raises $179m to supercharge AI medical diagnosis technology

With its AI-driven diagnosis tools now available to half of Australia's radiologists and assisting the care of more than six million patients worldwide each year, Sydney-based health-tech scale-up Harrison.ai has announced one of the country's largest ever Series C funding rounds to finance further R&D and expansion.

The company co-founded by brothers Dimitry and Dr Angus Tran has secured $179 million to support continued product development in radiology and pathology, as well as expansion into key global markets including the US.

The announcement shows that a $32 million investment late last year from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) was just a teaser, forming part of a much bigger round -  one of the largest globally in the medical AI space - co-led by Aware Super, ECP and Horizons Ventures.

Other participants in the raise included Ord Minnett, Wollemi Capital Group and existing investors such as Blackbird Ventures and Alpha JWC Ventures. Harrison.ai’s total capital raised to date exceeds US$240 million (AU$387 million). 

"We’re grateful to have the continued support and confidence of our investors as we work toward scaling healthcare capacity with AI," says Harrison.ai co-founder and CEO Dr Aengus Tran.

"This funding marks a significant milestone, enabling us to improve patient outcomes in even more diagnostic areas on a truly global scale."

The company's radiology solution Annalise.ai is live in more than 1,000 healthcare facilities across 15 countries, processing scans for more than 45 trusts and more than 131 public hospitals in the UK, including 35 per cent of chest X-ray volumes in England.

Annalise.ai also powers all CT Brain scans across public accident and emergency (A&E) systems in Hong Kong.

Harrison.ai's technology is also driving a significant improvement through early lung cancer detection within hospital systems, with one study showing a 45 per cent increase in diagnostic accuracy for radiologists who use its products.

Studies also indicate that Harrison.ai's AI technology for chest radiography can aid in the early detection of lung cancer, showing that over 32 per cent of lung cancer cases could have been diagnosed sooner, by an average of 16 months.

In another recent breakthrough, the company partnered with South Australia Medical Imaging (SAMI) to deploy AI across the state - a first for public radiology in the country.

"With the growing diagnostic backlogs in Australian hospitals, AI solutions like Harrison.ai are the unfair advantage clinicians urgently need to reduce the time to accurate diagnosis of cancer and other critical illnesses, enhancing patient outcomes," says Dr Tran.

"It is our hope that we can bring AI-driven diagnostic advancements to every public hospital across Australia."

In 2024, the company also launched Harrison.rad.1, a radiology-specific vision-language model that excels in benchmarks against other foundational models, as well as in standard radiology examinations taken by human radiologists. 

Aware Super portfolio manager for direct equities, Alvin Chan, says Harrison.ai’s ability to harness the rapidly evolving opportunities out of digitisation and AI is "remarkable".

"The ability to help fund the growth of Harrison.ai’s exciting proposition will not only seek to generate strong returns for our 1.1 million members but make incredible contributions to both the Australian and global healthcare communities," he says.