Biotech
Wednesday, November 8th, 2023 3:31 pm EDT
Key Points
- Introduction of Cercle: Cercle is a new health tech startup that focuses on advancing women’s health, particularly in the field of fertility care. The company utilizes artificial intelligence to organize unstructured medical data, including medical records and test results, into a standardized format. This data organization aims to support fertility doctors and researchers in developing more personalized treatment plans and accelerating pharmaceutical discoveries.
- Personalized Health Information: Cercle’s platform allows physicians to access de-identified and anonymous data from similar patients who have undergone specific medical procedures, such as egg freezing. This information helps doctors tailor treatment plans by learning from the experiences of others, ultimately enabling women to make more informed health decisions.
- Major Investors and Partners: Cercle has garnered support from prominent investors and partners. Meta’s former COO, Sheryl Sandberg, and her husband, Tom Bernthal, are lead investors through their venture fund, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners. Additionally, Cercle has partnered with genetics company Eurofins Genoma and US Fertility, the largest fertility network in the United States, which supports over 100 clinics. While the initial focus is on fertility care, Cercle plans to expand its services to other areas within women’s health.
A new health tech startup called Cercle launched Wednesday and announced major global partners and investors, including Meta’s former COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Cercle uses artificial intelligence to try and advance women’s health, particularly within fertility care. The company’s platform organizes unstructured medical data, such as medical records and test results, into a standardized format for fertility doctors and researchers, in the hopes it will help clinicians develop more personalized treatment plans and accelerate new discoveries in pharmaceuticals.
For instance, if a patient wants to freeze her eggs, her doctor can use Cercle’s platform to look at data from similar patients who have also had their eggs frozen. The information is de-identified and anonymous, according to Cercle, but the physician can see what kind of treatments helped or didn’t, then use that information to develop a more personalized plan of action.
“That’s the founding mission behind Cercle, to personalize and contextualize biomedical and genomics information so women can make better, more informed health decisions,” Cercle CEO and co-founder Juan Carlos Riveiro said in a release Wednesday.
Cercle’s lead investors include Sandberg and her husband Tom Bernthal through their new venture fund, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, Cercle announced. Sandberg left her role as COO of Meta in June of 2022, and her fund will be “investing, supporting and scaling alongside great entrepreneurs,” according to its LinkedIn page.
Cercle is also partnering with the genetics company Eurofins Genoma, as well as US Fertility, the nation’s largest fertility network that supports more than 100 clinics.
Cercle said it will initially focus on fertility care but plans to expand to other areas within women’s health.
For the full original article on CNBC, please click here: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/08/health-ai-startup-cercle-debuts-with-backing-from-sheryl-sandberg.html
