EarSmartAI, a pediatric healthcare technology company developing an AI-powered ear infection diagnostic platform, announced it secured a $250,000 pre-seed investment from Boomerang Ventures as the company looks to address the growing demand for scalable pediatric diagnostic solutions. The company also named veteran MedTech executive Mark Terrill as CEO and Co-Founder.
Based in Indianapolis, EarSmartAI is building a connected care platform designed to help parents assess potential pediatric ear infections from home using a smart otoscope, proprietary AI software, and a mobile application. The company is targeting a pediatric ear infection market that generates more than 15 million annual cases and approximately $5 billion in healthcare costs in the United States.
The platform enables parents to enter symptoms into a mobile app, capture eardrum video footage using EarSmartAI’s otoscope device, and receive an AI-generated likelihood assessment intended to guide next steps for care. The company believes the technology can reduce unnecessary medical visits, improve access to pediatric care, and enable earlier intervention for children experiencing symptoms.
EarSmartAI plans to monetize the platform through connected device sales, recurring software subscription services, and telehealth-related partnerships across consumer, healthcare, and retail distribution channels.
Terrill brings more than 20 years of MedTech leadership experience to the company. His background includes leadership roles at Arc Medical, Voco AI, and Caliridia Medical, where he helped scale operations, grow revenue, and support acquisitions and public market activity.
The company said the new funding will support completion of its FDA human study, advancement toward a De Novo FDA regulatory submission, commercialization planning, and continued expansion of its pediatric diagnostic platform.
EarSmartAI’s technology was developed in collaboration with pediatric experts from the University of Pittsburgh, including Alejandro Hoberman and Nader Shaikh. The company said its proprietary AI models were trained using more than 1,500 annotated tympanic membrane videos and are supported by clinical research published in JAMA in 2024.
According to EarSmartAI, its intellectual property portfolio includes patent and copyright protections covering AI-enabled diagnostic technology and image classification methods, which leadership believes creates a defensible position within the emerging pediatric digital diagnostics market.
The company recently initiated its FDA human study and plans to pursue a De Novo FDA submission following study completion and data analysis as part of its broader commercialization strategy in the United States.
EarSmartAI said it intends to spend the next 24 months advancing regulatory milestones, expanding commercialization readiness, strengthening telehealth and distribution partnerships, and scaling infrastructure for broader pediatric connected care applications.
KEY QUOTES:
“The technology behind EarSmartAI and the caliber of its clinical co-founders immediately stood out to me. Parents today are dealing with tremendous stress when a child develops symptoms late at night, and immediate access to pediatric care is limited. EarSmartAI was designed to reduce that disruption by delivering a fast, convenient, and more accurate way to assess ear infections from home. We believe EarSmartAI can become the new standard of care for young children at home, capable of helping families identify potential ear infections in minutes, not hours. No waiting room. No copay. No guesswork.
Boomerang Ventures understands how to build and scale connected healthcare companies. Their support goes well beyond capital and brings deep expertise across healthcare innovation. This investment enables us to execute on a clearly defined roadmap that includes completion of our FDA human study, advancement toward De Novo regulatory submission, commercialization preparation, and continued expansion of our AI-powered pediatric diagnostic platform.”
Mark Terrill, CEO and Co-Founder, EarSmartAI
“EarSmartAI represents exactly the type of connected health innovation we look for at Boomerang Ventures. Drs. Hoberman and Shaikh are leading pediatric experts in the US for the diagnosis and management of acute otitis media in children, and they co-founded EarSmartAI with Boomerang to address the large unmet need for accurate, at-home detection of an infection 70% of children experience before age two. Boomerang’s ongoing support, combined with CEO Mark Terrill’s track record building and scaling MedTech companies, makes EarSmartAI a game-changing company for the most common childhood illness.”
Eric Beier, MD, MBA, Partner and Chief Medical Officer, Boomerang Ventures
