Imaging disrupter Nanox is acquiring both an artificial intelligence firm and a teleradiology outfit for a total of $230 million, the three companies announced Tuesday.
The publicly traded startup has agreed to pony up $200 million in its own company shares to acquire Zebra Medical Vision. Founded in 2014 and also based in Israel, the AI specialist has seven medical imaging algorithms cleared in the United States.
Nanox is paying another $30 million — including $9 million in cash and $21 million of its shares — for USARad and companion company Medical Diagnostics Web. The Florida-based telemedicine group was founded 12 years ago and employs 300 radiologists working in all 50 states. Combined with a stable of physicians and newly acquired AI know-how, Nanox hopes to deploy its novel imaging system to improve worldwide access to radiology services.
“The global shortage of trained radiologists represents a significant bottleneck in the imaging process,” Ran Poliakine, chairman and CEO of Nanox, said in a statement. “The Nanox.ARC, together with the acquisitions of Zebra Medical Vision and USARad, if consummated, would allow us to support our systems with a large network of radiologists empowered with highly advanced AI algorithms.”
Nanox has been working for years to roll out its system, which it says would offer high-end imaging capabilities at a fraction of the cost and footprint. It scored a win in April when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared its single-source X-ray technology. At the time, company officials said they hoped to finalize deployment of the first 15,000 Nanox.ARC systems by 2025.
The Neve Ilan, Israel, company has signed a series of deals to distribute it machines, including a February 2020 pact with USARad tied to 3,000 such systems. Zebra Medical, which has raised $52 million in funding to date, said it plans to integrate its AI tools into the Nanox.ARC.
The Zebra Medical acquisition is subject to approval by its equity holders, while the USARad deal still awaits due diligence and the negotiation of a definitive agreement. Both also require regulatory approval, among other conditions.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.