UK medtech spinout Cascader has completed a seed funding round led by Topcon Healthcare to accelerate the development and commercialization of artificial intelligence tools for eye care and oculomics.
Cascader was formed through a partnership between Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Topcon Healthcare, and UCL Ventures (formerly UCL Business). The company aims to translate AI developed through academic and clinical research into tools that can be deployed in routine care. The new funding will support the progression of its first products toward market launch, expansion of its team and further development of its healthcare AI platform.
Its initial focus will be macular diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), with longer-term plans to build a broader portfolio of AI tools spanning community optometry, high-street settings, and specialist hospital clinics. Cascader also plans to apply ocular imaging and data to oculomics, using information from the eye to generate insights into systemic conditions such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease.
The company builds on more than a decade of AI research at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields. That work includes a collaboration with Google DeepMind launched in 2016, which used deep learning to analyze optical coherence tomography scans. Research published in Nature Medicine in 2018 showed that the system could make referral recommendations for more than 50 sight-threatening conditions with performance comparable to leading experts.
Cascader will also receive support from the INSIGHT Eye and Oculomics Health Data Research Hub at Moorfields, which will provide access to curated datasets and computing infrastructure for AI development.
“After more than a decade of developing pioneering AI and advancing the field of oculomics, we are fully focused on moving these technologies from research into real-world clinical care,” said Pearse Keane, Cascader co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor. He added that the goal is to enable earlier diagnosis and treatment and ultimately help preserve sight around the world.
“Topcon has supported Cascader from its inception, and we are impressed by the progress the team has made,” explained CEO of Topcon Healthcare, Ali Tafreshi. “Cascader is strongly aligned with our Healthcare from the Eye strategy and our belief that ocular data, AI, and connected care can transform how disease is detected and managed. We are pleased to lead this seed round and support Cascader as it moves from pioneering research toward scalable clinical application.”
Source: Cascader.
