Balderton joins $30M Series D for big data biotech platform play, Sophia Genetics

Switzerland based SaaS startup Sophia Genetics is hoping to give IBM Watson a run for its money in the healthcare diagnostics space. It's built a big data analytics platform that harnesses clinicians' medical expertise to enhance genomic diagnostic via AI algorithms -- leading, it says, to better and faster diagnoses for patients with diseases such as cancer. Hospitals that use the platform are intended to jointly benefit from expert-fed, algorithmic DNA sequencing diagnostic insights exactly because they are shared across the platform. So as the user-base scales -- it says it's adding 10 new hospitals each month -- Sophia Genetics' AIs get smarter and more accurate, and patients anywhere can benefit from the pooled knowledge. The company is announcing a $30 million Series D funding round today, adding UK-based VC firm Balderton Capital to its investor roster, along with 360 Capital Partners.