Sword Health Raises $130M at $3B Valuation for AI-Powered Healthcare
The digital care startup startup views artificial intelligence as the ultimate tool for democratizing access to personalized healthcare
In-home care has gone high-tech. Sword Health, an AI-powered digital care platform aimed at improving healthcare accessibility and lowering costs, has raised new capital to the tune of $130 million, bringing the startup’s valuation to $3 billion as it introduces a groundbreaking “AI Care Specialist.”
The latest financing round was a mix of primary and secondary sale to provide liquidity to current and former employees and early investors, according to a release. The latest round brings Sword’s total funding to $340 million, and an IPO could be in the cards for next year.
Founded in 2015, Sword Health offers three digital therapy programs that cater to specific needs: Thrive (digital physical therapy for chronic joint or back pain), Bloom (a pelvic health solution for women) and Move (a whole-body solution for daily soreness). After enrolling in a program, members select a Clinical Specialist who creates a program tailored to their needs. Depending on the program, members can receive a kit or wearable to track progress.
Sword Health’s AI Care Specialist, “Phoenix,” guides members through care sessions with natural conversation anywhere, anytime.
The experience is designed to be highly personalized and engaging, with Phoenix aware of a member’s condition and treatment progress. Phoenix will ask the user how they feel, make session suggestions and offer motivation and real-time feedback while monitoring progress. Once a session is complete, Phoenix will summarize the performance data for trends, actionable insights, and recommendations for the human clinician to inform the patient’s plan. There is still oversight — clinicians can make modifications to recommendations or reject them entirely.
Despite its high-tech and AI-driven approach, the member-Phoenix interaction seems almost human-like, judging by a video introducing the groundbreaking new feature. Sword’s AI can analyze movement and offer feedback, the company’s founder and CEO Virgilio “V” Bento told CNBC, while Phoenix concentrates on the human interaction component.
“With more than three million AI sessions delivered to date, we’ve proven that our AI Care model is able to deliver on our initial vision of using AI to make access to high-quality care readily available, removing barriers to access to care while cutting millions of dollars in healthcare waste for our clients,” Bento said.
AI Motion Tracking Comes to Fitness
While Sword is focused on its latest innovation in healthcare, Sency is quickly gaining ground with its own AI-powered motion-tracking technology in the fitness realm. The tech company’s SDK enables fitness brands to offer motion analysis within their apps for hyper-personalization and real-time feedback.
“Sency’s AI technology holds immense potential for shaping the future of fitness,” Sency co-founder and CBO Adam Grinker said. “From gyms to mobile apps, health and wellness facilities, and even workplace fitness programs, motion analysis will permeate every aspect of the fitness landscape.”
With demand at an all-time high for personal training services, Sency’s Fitness AI assessments offer precise analysis for users of all ages, engaging them in various functional movements, rep counting, feedback, and calculating a fitness score. In exchange, users understand their strengths, risks and areas for improvement.
“Many platforms offer generic content based on user questionnaires, but this approach has limitations,” Grinker said. “Sency’s AI assessments provide immediate, accurate analysis based on real-time comparisons with our gold standards and ever-optimizing demographic segmentations held in our movement brain. This ensures exercises are conducted with proper form, reducing injury risk and keeping users engaged.”
