Ukraine-founded Altris AI raises ＄1M from Russian Runa Capital

Altris AI, a startup founded in Ukraine, developing an AI platform for ophthalmologists, has raised $1 million, Siliсonсanals reports. The round was led by the Russian fund Runa Capital. Other investors include Artesian, Joint Journey, Brinc Limited, Farmak, Chicago Booth Angels, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

About Altris AI

• Altris AI was founded in 2017. The company wants to help people fight eye diseases with the support of technologies. Altris AI can identify, localize, and quantify pathologies and pathological signs in macular and retinal diseases.
• The startup claims that the Altris AI SaaS platform, which is based on 5 million OCT scans, has already detected and interpreted more than 100 pathologies and pathological signs. These include age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and choroidal nevus.
• The platform is used in more than 30 clinics. The company also has a free educational mobile app with over 11,000 active users among ophthalmologists and optometrists. Altris AI already works with global OCT distributors and equipment manufacturers such as Topcon Healthcare, Optopol, and Huvitz.
• Currently the startup is headquartered in the USA. Its R&D is located in Kyiv and Malaga. With the help of the raised funds, Altris AI plans to expand into the $58 billion global ophthalmology market.

“We are convinced that blindness can be prevented since it’s predictable. Our core motivation is to develop the most accurate and powerful tool we are able to. We are happy to have the support of a group of VCs that share our values of applying technology for global healthcare,”

Andrii Kuropyatnik, founder and CEO of Altris AI, commented.

“Healthcare is one of the most attractive applications for AI. With recent advances in machine learning, the vast volumes of data gathered in this industry will power the solutions that will assist medical professionals everyday. Arming doctors and clinicians with reliable and abundant diagnostics is the first step towards conquering a $58 billion global market,”

Michael Fanfant, General Partner of Palo Alto-based Runa Capital, added.

About Runa Capital

• Runa Capital is positioned as an international fund with offices in the USA, Germany, Great Britain, and Luxembourg. In fact, it is a Russian fund founded in 2010 by Dmitry Chikhachev, Sergey Belousov, and Ilya Zubarev. The office in Palo Alto was opened in 2014, and the Berlin office was opened in 2018. Runa’s Moscow office is not listed on the company’s website, but is marked as “temporarily closed” on Google.
• On March 4, 2022, Runa publicly condemned the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine. “This war is devastating and unjust. We feel tremendous sorrow and pain for Ukraine and all the people affected by this tragedy. As for the Russian-born part of our team, we are ashamed, deplore the aggression, and believe this war is catastrophic for both the Ukrainian and Russian people and all those who are impacted across the globe,” the fund said in a statement. Runa also stated that their partners are not connected to sanctioned organizations.
• Runa Capital has been interested in the Ukrainian startup market since its foundation, although the fund has invested little. In particular, the fund backed the Ukrainian startup Jelastic in 2010. Altris AI is only the second public investment in a Ukrainian startup from the fund.