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According to the CDC, 1 in 36 children in the United States has autism. Research shows that the earlier a child is diagnosed, the better the developmental outcome. EarliTec Diagnostics has just raised new capital to expand its system that allows clinicians to diagnose children as young as 16 months old.
The Atlanta-based startup’s FDA-cleared approach involves a child watching a short video or social interaction on a screen for 12 minutes, while the device uses AI to track the child’s eye movements. That’s what it means. According to EarliTec, children with autism do not concentrate as much on videos as children without autism.
The startup is co-led by Nexus NeuroTech Ventures, a venture firm focused on supporting companies developing solutions for brain diseases, and Venture Investors, a Midwest venture fund that invests in healthcare companies, and has a Series B It raised $21.5 million in a round. The startup’s technology is currently being used by his eight clinicians in six states in the United States.
Tom Ressemann, CEO of EarliTec Diagnostics, told TechCrunch that traditional autism diagnosis requires a three- to four-hour evaluation, which can result in long wait times. EarliTec’s 12-minute test is designed to help clinicians make diagnoses faster, helping them treat more children.
“You have to be able to incorporate it into their current workflow,” Lesseman says. “So with a test like ours that is flexible in terms of where it can be accessed, it can be integrated into most workflows, whether it’s at the child’s home, in the clinic or school, or on a tablet. It’s also good for parents.”
The company plans to use the funding to continue expanding its commercialization, Lesseman said. EarliTec is currently working with children aged 16 months to his 30 months and will use some of the new capital for research that could help expand the age range the system can diagnose. I plan on pouring it in. We also hope this capital will help improve evaluation and treatment options.
Before joining EarliTec, Ressemann was CEO of several other medical device startups, including Amphora Medical and Entellus Medical. He said it was. He said that despite the prevalence of autism in the United States, it remains a difficult area to raise funds because only certain investors are interested in the area. But that’s starting to change.
The reason I was so intrigued by this deal is because there seems to be increasing momentum and interest in the autism-focused healthcare space by venture capital. Before 2021, this was even rarer.
The Autism Impact Fund closed its $60 million fund this week, 20% above its $50 million goal. Autism Impact Fund is not the only company investing in this space. Divergent Ventures raised his $10 million fund in 2021 focused on early-stage companies in the neurodiversity space. EarliTec’s backer, Nexus NeuroTech Ventures, was founded in 2023.
Several startups in this space have also raised notable funding. Cortica, a diagnostic and treatment planning company, has raised more than $175 million in venture funding from companies including CVS Health Ventures and .406 Ventures. Forta, a family-focused autism treatment, has raised more than $55 million from backers including Insight Partners and Alumni Fund. Opya, a digital therapy platform for autism, has raised more than $19 million from backers including SoftBank’s Open Opportunity Fund.
Lesseman said diagnostic and evaluation tools and the breadth of treatments have changed rapidly since he and his wife went through the process with their now 27-year-old son several years ago.
It’s great to see startups and ventures backing treatments and tools to help children with autism, but why are investors interested in supporting solutions now? I always wonder if they are, or why they weren’t interested before. When I asked Lesseman what he thought, he said that awareness of the prevalence of this disease has made a huge difference.
“Just a few years ago, the incidence was thought to be 1 in 1,000 children; now it’s 1 in 36,” says Lesseman. “That’s the recognition.”
This makes a lot of sense. In my mind, I’ve always thought that the goal of an awareness campaign is for more people who don’t have this disease to understand its prevalence, but more information means more diagnosis. I didn’t think it would help me get a better idea of how many. The people this actually affects. Knowing these numbers helps investors get a complete picture of addressable markets and opportunities.
“The size and scope of the problem is appealing,” Lesseman said of recent VC interest. “When there’s a big unmet need, there’s often interest in getting in there.”
We hope investors remain interested. Because more money going into startups like this that help children with developmental delays and disabilities, and that benefit venture capital, is a great strategy to make money while directly improving people’s lives. Because it seems like it.
