Nanox Nabs Additional $20M From SK Telecom To Democratize Medical Imaging

Israeli medical imaging company Nanox has secured another $20 million investment from SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest wireless carrier, the company has announced. The investment comes five months after Nanox raised $26 million from a range of investors including $5 million from SK Telecom. This brings Nanox’s Series B round to $46 million.

Founded in 2018, Nanox is developing a commercial-grade digital X-ray source designed for real-world medical imaging applications. The Nanox System is composed of the Nanox.Arc, a novel digital X-ray device that is paired with the Nanox.Cloud, the company’s cloud-based software to provide end-to-end medical imaging services. The services offer image repository, radiologist matching, online and offline diagnostics review and annotation, connectivity to diagnostic assistive artificial intelligence systems, billing, and reporting. The system aims to improve the accessibility and affordability of early detection services worldwide through the introduction of medical screening as a service (MSaaS,) the company said.

Nanox’s system is produced at a fraction of the cost of a CT scanner (approximately $10,000 compared to several million, and a fraction of the weight (about 70kg compared to about 2,000 kg for a CT scanner). The company expects the system to be available globally in 2021. 

As part of the investment agreement, Nanox said it intends to establish a wholly-owned Korean subsidiary focused on scaling up production of its system while leveraging SK’s deep expertise in the area of semiconductors. Nanox also announced a joint collaboration with SK to deploy 2,500 Nanox Systems in South Korea and Vietnam in a range of clinics and medical centers that cannot afford medical imaging equipment. This is set to increase the availability of imaging as a standard of care.

Ran Poliakine, founder and CEO of Nanox said: “Nanox’s vision is nothing short of helping eradicate cancer and other conditions that plague us by increasing early detection of medical conditions that are discoverable by X-ray. We have been working for over eight years to bring a new breed of imaging to the world that can help us achieve this ambitious goal. Big visions require big partnerships to become real. SK is one of our greatest supporters and we go hand in hand for creating a world where no person has to wait weeks and months in line for radiology services and diagnostics.”

SK CEO Jung Ho Park said: “We see Nanox as one of the most promising companies to make a real difference for early detection of disease and higher standard of care to the humankind.”