2. 2 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Healthcare
Next generation of
drugs
§ Biologics and small-
molecules
§ Investment focus:
Oncology, Immunology &
Immuno-Oncology
§ First-in-class
Life Sciences
Next generation life
science technologies
§ Next generation tools
and services for
biotech research &
production
§ Tools and laboratory
supply for the
academic research
and industrial testing
Performance
Materials
Next generation
materials
§ Innovative display
materials, pigments
and functional
materials, and
applications
§ High-tech materials for
electronics and
applications
Investments in new
business fields
§ Cross-sector and brand
new business verticals for
the Merck Group
§ Interest in multiple fields,
ranging from deep health-
tech solutions, agtech &
food tech, to deep tech
enabling technologies
New Businesses
At M Ventures we discover exciting
ideas and novel technologies by thinking
beyond our own imagination; helping our
partners create tomorrow’s greatest
ideas, building the future together.
3. 3 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Pushing the boundary
Benefits of earlier brain health detection is well recognized
Early symptom
At risk group
Triggers screening Clinical diagnosis Treatment
Functional decline
Earlier detection benefits:
Ÿ Medical: earlier access to intervention to improve outcome
Ÿ Financial: better disease outcome leads healthcare cost saving
Ÿ R&D: open up new time windows for treatment investigation
Ÿ Social & emotional: Enable patients to plan ahead while cognitively able to understand choices
4. 4 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Road blocks
Status quo hampers early brain health detection
Social
Biology Tools
Social stigma
Lack of awareness
Subjective measures
Accessibility of tools
Heterogenous causes
Inadequate biomarkers
5. 5 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Untapped data sources
The human body generates vast amounts of proxy data
Source: Kourtis et al., npj Digital Medicine, 2019
6. 6 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Turning data into action
Proxy data can be useful in different context of early detection
Ÿ Know the patient population
Ÿ High degree of control over
environment
Ÿ Know the patient population
Ÿ Low degree of control over
environment
Ÿ Don’t know the patient population
Ÿ Low degree of control over
environment
7. 7 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
In pursuit
Investments into digital proxies for early detection is on the rise
0
5
10
15
20
25
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
No.ofdeals
USDmillion
N.A. Europe APAC Israel Deal value ($m)
Source: Pitchbook; M Ventures analysis
8. M Ventures’ vision on the space of Novel Biomarkers
M Ventures investment thesis
Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Improved patient
outcomes
Continuous monitoring
Current screening tools
only provide health
snapshots
Novel biomarkers enable
continuous health
monitoring to understand
disease onset and
progression
Actionable insights
Current screening tools
provide limited insights
into disease onset and
progression
Novel biomarkers provide
real-time insights into
health progression and
treatment outcomes
Early detection
Current screening tools
only include patients once
they present to their GP
with symptoms
Novel biomarkers enable
early detection to prevent
high-cost events
Low barrier
Current screening tools
often require subjective
questionnaires or GP visits
Novel biomarkers run on
devices already owned by
individuals, and monitor
health passively
9. 9 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Voice as a proxy
Big tech brands also showing interest to measure health through voice
Amazon is building a 'health & wellness’
team within Alexa as it aims to upend
health care – CNBC, May 2018
10. M Ventures’ vision Vocal Biomarkers as a Novel Biomarker
M Ventures investment thesis
Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Collection of voice
samples on self-
owned devices such
as smartphones or
Google Home /
Alexa
If consented to, the device
is always sensing: no need
for the user to switch on
allowing for continuous
background sample
collection
Proprietary voice
analysis to turn
unstructured voice
samples into actionable
health-insights
Full integration with
health-related products
and health-services
such as disease
monitoring tools, GP
integration and
healthcare systems
A truly passive health information platform
11. 11 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Activities in the space
Voice analysis in healthcare finds many applications
Analysis of non-linguistic
voice features tagged with
health labels to produce
health scores
Analysis of semantic voice
features tagged with
health labels to produce
health scores
Analysis of speech tagged
with emotion/ intent
labels to produce
emotion/ intent scores
Voice analysis not tagged
with health labels to
produce health scores
Sonde develops best-in-class technology to turn voice samples into actionable health-data, having
demonstrated feasibility of interpreting 6 seconds of free-speech on self-owned device, potentially
enabling true-passive deployment
12. 12 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
M Ventures investment – Sonde Health
Sonde is developing a voice-based health measurement tech platform
Ÿ Founded: 2015
Ÿ Location: Boston, MA, US
Ÿ Investments: Closed $16m Series A in Apr 2019
Ÿ IP: Exclusive license from MIT Lincoln Lab
13. 13 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
M Ventures investment – Sonde Health
Speech production starts in the brain – voice as a proxy
Complexity of Core Speech Network Approximate view of speech production
Speech
Concept
Sentences and words
Syllables and phonemes
Prosodics
Phonetic representation:
Position/state of articulators/
folds
Timing and coordination of
articulators and vocal folds
Neural signaling
Muscle activation
Differentbrainregions
Auditoryandtactileself-monitoring
Sentence/word
s from concept
Prosodics
Syllables
Phonemes
Articulator
positions
Vocal cord
source
state
Articular and cords
timing/coordination
Neural motor
signals
Auditory
feedback
Tactile
feedback
Parkinson’s
mTBI
Cognitive
Impairment
14. 14 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
M Ventures investment – Sonde Health
Translate vocal signatures into brain health measurement models
Vocal biomarker 1
Distinct Acoustic Feature of
voice correlated with a with
an element of health, e.g.
pitch slope
Vocal biomarker 2
Distinct Acoustic Feature of
voice correlated with a with
an element of health, e.g.
Formant Frequencies
Vocal biomarker 3
Distinct Acoustic Feature of
voice correlated with a with
an element of health, e.g.
Harmonic to Noise Ratio
Health measures are the outcome of
Sonde’s machine learning scoring
models
Vocal biomarkers are distinct acoustic
features, correlated with an element of
health or disease
Health measure
• Disease screening
• Response to treatment
• Etc. etc.
15. 16 Open Voice Amsterdam | May 2019 |
Some further thoughts
New data opens up new opportunities, but also new challenges
Extending early brain disease detection into the real world
Seamlessly integrate into everyday life
Proxy data that translate into actionable insight
Scalable across geographies & conditions
