Sonio is a company that is known as the only SaaS platform that empowers healthcare professionals to secure prenatal care by combining technological innovation, medical expertise, and collective intelligence. To learn more about the company, Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sonio co-founder and CEO Cécile Brosset.
Cécile Brosset’s Background
Brosset is a French entrepreneur who has a background in strategy consulting.
“After a career in strategy consulting at Bain and at Bpifrance, the French public bank for entrepreneurs, I wanted to be an entrepreneur myself. I looked for a project that made me want to devote all my heart and energy to it: a project that would have a real impact and improve women’s health, traditionally neglected by investors and researchers. I myself am a mother of two and identify with the sometimes fulfilling, sometimes painful journey of a pregnant woman,” said Brosset.
Formation Of Brosset
How did the idea for Sonio come together? “Congenital anomalies affect 1 in 33 births in developed countries. In 50% of the cases, detectable anomalies are not identified during ultrasound exams, which shows how complex prenatal medicine is. Indeed, a pregnancy ultrasound requires practitioners to take between 20 and 50 different images, meeting precise quality criteria, during an examination that lasts 20 to 30 minutes. Even when they are tired. Even when the baby is in the wrong position. Even when it is the 15th ultrasound of the day. So how can you avoid missing an anomaly?” Brosset explained. “Sonio was born from the common research between experts in prenatal medicine and data science. The most renowned French Hospital for Children joined forces with the top French engineering school to develop a unique AI software to empower fetal health practitioners for improved prenatal screening and diagnosis. Their common goal is to improve the health of women and children through a companion tool available to all health professionals. Sonio is fortunate to be supported and accompanied by leading experts in fetal medicine, notably in France, England, Canada, and Germany.”
Sonio’s first product Sonio Expert originally started as a thesis project. And after the thesis had been defended, all parties involved decided to look for someone who could help them ensure that their research would benefit as many women and children as possible. Plus Sonio was born with the objective to create a comprehensive solution for fetal and maternal medicine that would be used throughout the world.
Core Products
What are Sonio’s core products and features? “Sonio Expert is CE marked since May 26, 2021 and it is used by healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Europe, India and Brazil. Sonio and Ecole Polytechnique have jointly filed a patent for a product that relies on artificial intelligence to support clinical expertise and go beyond the capabilities of the human brain. In this sense, it is able to manage in real time at least 3^700 possible combinations to guide towards the right diagnosis. It takes into account several types of data: signs visible on ultrasound, medical history, risk factors and genetic information,” Brosset pointed out. “Sonio Pro aims to ensure the quality of screening ultrasounds: a version that includes automated image recognition using artificial intelligence is currently 501k pending. Sonio’s project is particularly ambitious, since it aims to guide healthcare professionals in performing screening and diagnosis on the entire body of the fetus. It relies on two types of artificial intelligence: one statistical to establish a probabilized diagnosis from a decision tree managing very large dimensions and guiding clinical reasoning; another based on machine learning to analyze ultrasound images and detect anomalies.”
Evolution Of Sonio’s AI Technology
How has Sonio AI’s technology evolved since launching? Brosset revealed that the first algorithm that was patented following Remi’s research is one statistic to establish a probability diagnosis from a decision tree managing very large dimensions and guiding clinical reasoning.
“In a new version of Sonio Expert which has just been CE marked, this algorithm has been improved to take into account even more medical history elements, anomalies, and syndromes,” Brosset added. “The second algorithm is based on machine learning to analyze ultrasound images and detect anomalies. Ultrasound images are automatically identified and the algorithm confirms if they meet the quality standards. Soon, we will be able to analyze the images and identify anomalies. We also pay great attention to building software that is highly secure, easy to use and that looks beautiful!”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Sonio’s biggest milestones? Brosset cited the following:
— April 2020: creation of Sonio
— May 2021: First product (Sonio Expert for expert ultrasounds) is CE marked and first customers in Europe
— July 2022: Fundraising (seed) – 5 million euros
— Oct 2022: Second product (Sonio Pro for all ultrasounds, including routine) is launched in Europe
— Dec 2022: Sonio is selected by the European Innovation Council Accelerator, thus securing a €2.5 million grant and a € 7.5 million equity investment
— March 2023: Sonio is sold in 22 countries, including most European countries, India,
— Brazil, Nigeria and Egypt
Customer Success Stories
When I asked Brosset about some customer success stories, she provided the following examples. With Sonio, customers are able to:
— Help pregnancy ultrasound experts gain efficiency thanks to automation, optimized collaboration workflows and reduction of low value-added tasks
— Ensure an optimal quality of each ultrasound, whatever the context (remote area, emergency room, operator fatigue, and high patient BMI)
— Rule out syndromes, thus being able to reassure the parents that a defect is isolated
— Make diagnoses which are extremely complex. In some cases, Sonio suggests them to look for signs that they would have otherwise overlooked (for example look at the fetus’ eylashes!). In other cases, Sonio helps them make a diagnosis even when the fetus only shows a few typical signs of a disease. Prenatal diagnosis is complex partly because for a same disease, the phenotype can vary significantly from a fetus to another
— Not forget any image. In many cases, when a problem is detected before birth, the medical team can operate in utero, or more frequently, operate soon after birth, significantly improving the prognosis.
— Sonio can help diagnose conditions which are not linked to genetics (infections, toxicology), or when the genetic origin has not been confirmed. It is the case for fetal alcohol syndrome or cytomegalovirus.
Funding / Revenue
Upon asking Brosset about the company’s funding and revenue milestones, Brosset replied:
“We have recently secured a €10M fundraising round from the European Innovation Council Accelerator (EIC), and are very honored to be part of the 78 companies selected amongst over a thousand submissions. This funding completes an initial seed round of €5 million raised from Elaia, OneRagtime and BPIFrance in 2022. Thanks to this, Sonio will be able to both improve in terms of functionalities, by adding image recognition and genomics for instance, and prepare an entry to the US market as well as continue developing its direct sales activities in Europe but also in emerging countries, thanks to distribution partnerships.”
Total Addressable Market
What is the total addressable market (TAM) size that Sonio AI is pursuing? “Sonio’s initial focus is on fetal ultrasound practitioners and obstetrics specialists. The worldwide market is estimated at about 400,000 OBGYNs and MFMS, as well as over 2 million midwives and sonographers. Sonio aims to address these practitioners in core geographies such as Europe and the USA as well as some identified emerging countries. Next steps will include sizing the Point of Care opportunity for Sonio’s technology,” Brosset affirmed.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Sonio from the competition? “Sonio is the only solution which guides the practitioner in real time during a prenatal ultrasound to make a diagnosis,” Brosset answered. “Moreover, Sonio is the only solution that aims at covering the whole scope of fetal ultrasound, both routine and expert, to make them more efficient, give access to a high level of clinical expertise and increase their accuracy.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Sonio AI’s future company goals? “We would like our solution to help improve the health of women and children in the USA and in Europe, indeed. But Sonio also wants to ensure that each woman has access to the best quality of care, even if she is in a medical desert or in a developing country,” Brosset concluded.
