Medopad makes AI acquisitions, rebrands to Huma

Huma is the new name for Medopad as it makes acquisitions in its quest to make preventative healthcare a reality.

Medopad, the British healthtech company, has acquired two UK health AI and wearable tech companies, and rebranded to Huma. The acquisitions and the name change reflect a new, broader mission to collect and interpret biodata in the quest for preventative healthcare.

The acquisitions include BioBeats, specialising in digital mental health interventions, and Tarilian Laser Technologies (TLT), which has developed an unobtrusive continuous blood pressure monitor. With these two companies, Huma expands its ability to gather data that can open up new insights on people’s health.

Dan Vahdat, founder and CEO of Huma, explains: “Every day our bodies generate millions of unrecorded data points… This previously unseen data represents a category called digital biomarkers, the unique signatures created as we walk, talk and move. Digital biomarkers may help tell us what causes disease, how they progress, and potentially how we can prevent disease.”

Alan Milburn, the former Member of Parliament and Secretary of State for Health, joins the Huma board of directors as chairman. Since leaving government, he has focused on the health sector through a number of global roles: “We’re at the very early stages of what could be breakthroughs in how we understand health, diagnose and treat illnesses and Huma could become a true leader in this promising new area for life sciences, innovation partners and healthcare.”

Huma, based in London with offices in New York and Shanghai, was founded in 2011. Initially, as Medopad, it specialised in the remote monitoring of patients with rare and chronic diseases. The company has raised over $50 million from Bayer, NWS Holdings and others.

BioBeats, founded in 2012 and also London-based, is led by David Plans, CEO. The company’s flagship product, BioBase, is a mobile app paired with biosensors and a wearable device. It gathers biometric data, such as heart rate variability, and psychometric measures to provide users with a wellbeing score, fostering an increased understanding of their mental wellbeing. It has raised $6.6 million from Luminous Ventures, Oxford Sciences Innovation and IQ Capital, amongst others.

TLT was co-founded by Dr Sandeep Shah and Nita Shah in 2006. It has developed a cuffless blood pressure monitor utilising light modulation to detect motion, including continuous beat-by-beat flow motion forces that determine arterial blood pressure.