Startup aims to ‘unlock prevention’ by combining images, video, voice and other health data collected by our phones.
Berlin-based digital health startup YOU(th) Health Tech today announced $4.5 million in new funding to advance its smartphone-based preventive screening platform. By analyzing face videos, voice recordings, eye photos, skin images, typing patterns and step data, the platform is claimed to assess more than 50 digital biomarkers spanning multiple organ systems in less than two minutes.
With demand for prevention on the rise, YOU(th)’s founders argue that practical barriers continue to limit its uptake. The company is built on premise is that current smartphone sensors can already be used to gather significant signals about a person’s health, and have the capacity to replace some of the health screenings typically conducted at clinics.
“Our mission is to unlock prevention for 8 billion people,” said YOU(th) CEO Filippo Nigro. “Everyone talks about prevention, yet only ~8% screen at the optimal frequency because time, cost, and friction get in the way. We remove those frictions by turning everyday phone behavior, selfies, voice, typing, into passive health screening, seamlessly connected to real healthcare.”
The YOU(th) platform leverages a wide range of machine learning models trained on various types of digital signals, including photoplethysmography (PPG) data extracted from short face videos captured by a phone camera, which enables the analysis of subtle changes in reflected light across the skin to estimate physiological measures such as heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation. The platform’s voice analysis tools evaluate short spoken samples to detect patterns linked to mental wellbeing, respiratory issues and cognitive health. Eye images are processed to infer metabolic markers, while skin photos are compared with large datasets to assess hydration, pigmentation, pores and other dermatological indicators.
Together, all these inputs feed into a wellness scoring system designed to give users a simplified overview of their cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic, mental, cognitive and skin health. YOU(th) emphasizes its intention (at least currently) is not to diagnose illness, but to provide “insights to support healthy lifestyle choices and general well-being.” The company is pursuing a business-to-business-to-consumer strategy, partnering with clinics and health insurers to distribute its technology to patients and policyholders, and claims to have secured more than 20 commercial agreements so far.
The funding round was led by Callisto Health, with participation from Antler and other VCs, alongside several angel investors. The company said the new capital will largely be directed toward expanding engineering, data science and medical research teams as it continues developing its algorithms and clinical integrations.
Christoph Klink, Partner at Antler, lauded YOU(th) for its “clear vision for the future of longevity.”
“They are building foundational infrastructure for preventive medicine that directly addresses the needs of an overstretched healthcare system,” he said. “We have every confidence in their ability to lead this new category of digital health.”
