The news: Wavely Diagnostics, a Seattle-based startup developing a smartphone app to detect ear infections, has raised $2.2 million to launch and market its product. The app is tied to virtual care options.
The tech: Wavely’s diagnostics app uses acoustic signals to detect signs of an ear infection via a paper funnel placed at the opening of the ear canal. If a child has signs of a possible ear infection, caregivers can connect to a virtual care physician who has the option of prescribing treatment. Wavely will “enable parents to shift the primary cause of millions of doctor visits–ear infections–to virtual visits,” said CEO Arna Ionescu Stoll in a statement Tuesday announcing the funding.
The people: Wavely co-founders are Randall Bly, a pediatric ear nose and throat physician and assistant professor at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Shyam Gollakota, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington.
Gollakota is also co-founder of Sound Life Sciences, which recently received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its sonar-based app to monitor breathing. Gollakota and his colleagues also developed an acoustic-based method to monitor heart rate via a smart speaker like Alexa, and invented a device to detect opioid overdoses and inject an antidote. Gollakota has been previously featured on GeekWire’s Health Tech Podcast.
Stoll previously was a founder and principal at Triody, a consulting company for early-stage companies. Earlier, she was vice president of user experience and design at Proteus Digital Health.
The research: Bly and Gollakota previously published a study with their UW colleagues introducing an acoustic method to detect fluid in the middle ear, which limits eardrum mobility. The study used a smartphone microphone and speaker to emit sound and analyze its reflection from the eardrum.
What’s next: The funding will fuel market entry for the ear infection product, first to parents and other at-home consumers, then with healthcare partners. The 7-employee startup aims to grow to 25 this year.
Wavely is also developing other smartphone-based medical diagnostics. “Wavely’s platform has the powerful potential to enable access to medical diagnostics from the comfort of patients’ homes,” said Naomi Fried, managing partner at Ambit Health Ventures, which led Wavely’s investment round. Parents can now sign up for early-access to the ear infection app when it launches.
The backers: The new seed funding builds on $275,000 in grant funding raised since 2019. In addition to Ambit, participants in the new funding round are WXR Fund, WRF Capital, Cascade Seed Fund, Gaingels Spark Fund, HealthTech Capital, Wealthing VC Club, Purpose Built VC, Vantage Partners Texas, Crosstimbers Capital Group, and angel investors.
