Akara’s AI sensor. Photo courtesy of Akara via GlobeNewswire; cropped.
Akara has raised $5.5 million to expand technology that uses thermal sensors and artificial intelligence to track activity inside hospitals and help staff coordinate work.
The company announced the funding November 11, bringing its total financing to $12.3 million. It said the money will support growth in its operations and engineering teams, wider adoption of its products and development of AI agents for additional healthcare uses.
The round was led by Locke Health, with participation from VTC Ventures, the EIC Fund, CommonKind and NovaVector Holdings. Existing investors ACT, Atlantic Bridge and Enterprise Ireland also participated, alongside strategic angel investors, according to Akara.
Tracking how clinical rooms are used
Akara’s wall-mounted sensors capture information about how clinical spaces are used. The company says its software detects events and notifies staff when services are needed, while AI agents allow employees to ask questions about the information and generate reports in ordinary language.
The aim is to reduce manual documentation and fragmented communication that can leave staff waiting for information or clinical space unavailable. Those are the company’s intended benefits; its funding announcement did not provide independently verified measurements of time saved, extra patients treated or financial returns.
Akara says its technology combines thermal sensing with AI processing on each device, rather than capturing detailed visual images of patients and staff. That design is intended to limit transmission of sensitive data and reduce infrastructure needs.
The company’s privacy description is not a finding that every deployment is risk-free. The announcement did not provide an independent privacy audit or a comparison establishing that its tools outperform other hospital systems.
Expansion in the United States
Akara said its products are already deployed in U.S. hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, although the announcement did not identify those customers or state how many sites use the technology.
“Hospitals need to do more with existing staff and resources,” co-founder and chief executive Conor McGinn said in the release. “We want to give teams time back through technology that protects privacy, is affordable and straightforward to deploy.”
Akara is a Trinity College Dublin spin-out with offices in Ireland, Los Angeles and the United Kingdom. The announcement concerns financing for hospital operations technology, rather than the approval of a new diagnostic test or treatment.
VTC Ventures connects the company to the Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic ecosystem, Akara said. Locke Health’s managing partners bring experience at Cerner and Oracle Health.
The investment gives Akara more capital to develop and sell its products. Whether that translates into improved hospital capacity, lower administrative workload or better financial performance will depend on the results of deployments, not the funding total alone.
Source: Akara’s November 11 funding announcement.
JBizNews Desk | New York
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