Ubie is a health-tech company providing an AI symptom-checker with 10+ million monthly active users. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Ubie co-founder and co-CEO Kota Kubo to learn more.
Kota Kubo’s Background
(Kota Kubo, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ubie)
What is Kubo’s background? Kubo said:
“I graduated from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering. While enrolled, I was researching and developing algorithms that simulate the relationship between doctors’ symptoms and disease names. After that, I worked at M3 Corporation in software development and web marketing in B2C healthcare, including doctor Q&A services.”
“In 2017, I returned to my focus from school, which was to develop a program that could predict diseases based on symptoms. I partnered with my friend and former classmate, and now co-CEO of Ube, Yoshinori Abe, who was a medical doctor at the time, to create Ubie.”
Formation Of Ubie
How did the idea for the company come together? Kubo shared:
“Growing up in a financially challenged household and frequently falling ill, I often struggled with the costs of medical care in Japan, where access to healthcare is relatively easy due to government-provided insurance. One day, I realized that many prescribed medications were available over the counter, sparking an idea.”
“Leveraging my background, I launched a startup that uses artificial intelligence to guide patients on when to seek medical help and when over-the-counter drugs might suffice. This not only aims to reduce unnecessary medical expenses but also improves the efficiency of healthcare resource utilization, making healthcare more accessible and affordable.”
“While at M3, I realized that it was my passion to turn that idea into a company that could have a real impact on healthcare. I had learned a lot at that point about software development and marketing, so I felt the time was right. My partner, Yoshinori Abe, felt that a medical-based AI could have a significant impact on healthcare and became part of the project.”
“Ubie is founded on the idea that going to a doctor isn’t always convenient. It can be time-consuming, expensive, and difficult, especially for the elderly. When we started the company we had a mission of ‘developing a medical guide for everyone.’”
Favorite Memory
What has been Kubo’s favorite memory working for the company so far? Kubo reflected:
“Recently, our global monthly active users surpassed 10 million. When I started with our Symptom Checker, people told me it was time-consuming and wouldn’t gain popularity in the market. However, I trusted that our value of “Guiding people to appropriate care” was theoretically needed by people even though there were some barriers to overcome. It was very difficult, especially in the early days. However, we saw more and more references to Ubie on social media after we launched the service during the pandemic, which was a time of heightened need.”
“Seeing that acceptance on such a large scale let us truly understand the satisfaction users were getting.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Kubo explained:
“Our global core product, Symptom Checker, is a disease prediction AI housed within a digital health platform that serves both patients and provider organizations. Ubie’s AI platform is able to precisely uncover undiagnosed patient populations and accelerate their time to treatment.”
“We recently launched Checkup, currently underway with a pilot in asthma, which is designed to help patients track and improve their conditions by recording key measurements, providing reminders for medications and doctor appointments, and helping patients communicate with their providers. The platform allows patients to easily share updates and important health information with doctors to ensure their health and medication are being properly managed, and to flag any issues that may necessitate emergency care.”
“Together, Symptom Checker and Checkup are part of Ubie’s focus on impacting the entire continuum of a patient’s care journey.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Kubo and the team faced in building the company? Kubo acknowledged:
“Access to the clinical data is critical for developing accurate AI in healthcare, but it’s one of the more difficult points for health tech startups since big hospitals generally care more about track records. Therefore, we started our work with clinics in Japan. The fragmented nature of healthcare organizations in Japan compared to the US meant that we could partner with a number of more entrepreneurial clinics and achieve significant scale quickly. We gradually built track records with relatively small clinics and practices, and after that grew to partner with larger hospitals.”
Evolution Of Ubie’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Kubo noted:
“Since 2017, Ubie has focused on continuously improving its disease prediction algorithm to speed diagnosis and proper care for patients and to remove the burden from providers. We launched by training the AI on more than 50,000 peer-reviewed publications and had the potential to predict more than 1,100 diseases.”
“We now leverage a panel of more than 50 specialists that review the prediction pathway for each disease to ensure accuracy and are connected to more than 1,700 healthcare providers and organizations that can provide feedback based on use cases and real-world outcomes. We’ve collaborated with more than half of the major pharmaceutical companies in the world – including Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Takeda – allowing us insights into additional patient journeys and needs.”
“In the US, we’ve begun partnering with patient advocacy groups to allow those already living with certain conditions to test the AI for accuracy, provide feedback, and to help us better communicate with patients in each community by sharing understandable and relevant keywords and terms.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Kubo cited:
“Ubie has seen a lot of activity in the US in 2024 alone. We’ve partnered with two leading patient advocacy groups, including the National Kidney Fund and Cushing’s Support and Research Foundation. These partnerships have given us great insights into these disease areas and are helping us drive patients to their provider for diagnosis faster and getting them quality support information from these leading groups.”
“It has also been very encouraging to see our growing US user base of UbieHealth.com. We announced 2M users at the end of last year, and we’re just about to tick over 4M users now. It is very encouraging to see consumers embracing the value we strive to deliver.”
“Ubie has also announced two substantial pieces of data that highlight our accuracy and successes. First, we developed a framework based on pharmaceutical industry standards of measurement to evaluate our health outcomes and economic impact for patients. Results showed an estimated patient life expectancy impact of 27,000 Years and approximately $1BN.”
“We also shared a study showing that Ubie’ Symptom Checker reaches an accuracy close to that of Physicians, while outperforming competitors in providing disease information.”
“Finally, Ubie found that approximately 75% of patients who use the platform plan to seek professional medical advice afterward, reflecting our ability to promote high-value care in the US.”
“All of this together is showing us that we’re moving in the right direction to be able to reach patients where they are, drive engagement, and get them into the healthcare system to get them the care they need.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Kubo about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Recently, a woman in her 40s was concerned about occasional stomach pains that were so severe she couldn’t even stand up. She often had to lie down on the floor at the entrance of her house when she came home from work due to the pain. Her doctor tried changing her medication, but the issue was still present. Her mother was very worried because, in addition to the pain, she was getting thinner and thinner. She visited specialists, including a gastroenterologist, but they were unable to determine a cause. It wasn’t until Ubie suggested a gynecological disease that she was finally able to get the diagnosis that would address the issue.”
“Her gynecologist ran some tests and gave her a diagnosis of endometriosis, which was the cause of her pain. Treatment was able to resolve the issue, and she is once again healthy. If not for the disease prediction of Ubie, her journey to diagnosis could have continued and worsened.”
“I’m very honored when I hear the impact we’re able to have on people’s lives through real-world stories like this one.”
Funding
Upon asking Kubo about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“Ubie has raised approximately $80 million, with our latest funding round – a $45 million series C – announced in December 2022.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Kubo affirmed:
“The company is one of the few startups in the world with a medical data platform that has direct contact with both patients and medical institutions. Most patient-facing symptom diagnostics either use a static decision tree, which is limited in what it can understand about patient situations, or large language modules, such as ChatGPT, which are not typically specialized for healthcare and rely on publicly available data, which results in low accuracy.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Kubo pointed out:
“Our primary focus in the US is helping patients make better decisions and find the right care at every stage. Right now, our core audience are patients who are undiagnosed and trying to make sense of their conditions. However, we envision Ubie being a go-to portal for patients, no matter where they are in their care journey.”
“So our immediate next step is to expand the range of solutions we have across the continuum of the patient journey. Undiagnosed, newly diagnosed, chronically ill – we’re building solutions to make taking care of yourself more accessible. I will be especially proud if we succeed in doing this in a way that closes care gaps for underserved communities in the US. In this way, we fulfill our mission of being a healthcare guide for everyone.”
“With a longer-term view, our goal is to directly impact providers. While medical technology in the US is advanced, people still face barriers like extremely long waiting times to see a doctor, enormous costs (16 times larger than in Japan), medical transparency, etc. We know that provider resources are the bottleneck for many problems. Ultimately, Ubie’s AI will help remove certain provider barriers by accelerating a provider’s decision-making abilities and speeding appropriate patient care through the use of real-world data, which provides higher accuracy.”
Approach To Care In The US
How is your approach to care different in the US than in the rest of the world? Kubo concluded:
“In the US, we focus on providing diagnosis predictions directly to patients. We provide users with in-depth insights into their symptoms, a comprehensive analysis of potential diseases, and suggestions for specialists. This gets patients going on their treatment journey faster and can help get an accurate diagnosis sooner.”
“By connecting this system with pharmaceutical companies, marketers, and patient advocates, Ubie can connect tailored information from our partners to the patients who actually need it, when they need it. After providing patients with an action, Ubie can follow up with a sample of patients to assess outcomes and behavior change, i.e., care journey taken, diagnosis, what was prescribed, etc. This gives us the ability to go beyond views, and provide an impact for partners and improve health outcomes for patients.”
