I'm investing in Chipiron

Chipiron is a portable mini-MRI that is 10x cheaper and smaller than traditional ones. They are raising a seed round to reach their next technical milestones and produce clinical-level images.

Hi everyone,

I didn’t post for a while, as I was mostly managing my portfolio to minimize the impact of the downturn, and so didn’t have that many new deals to share.

My portfolio is currently up 7x overall, down from 7.7x in december. This is due to three companies doing downrounds or shutting down (all 3 consumer apps, two fintech and one social), and some vested tokens taking a hammering (I had sold all my liquid crypto assets back in december but still had plenty of vested tokens from private sales). My deeptech portfolio is doing great however, with some great uprounds despite the crisis.

I will be investing actively again now, so you can expect more regular updates!

Chipiron

Today’s deal is Chipiron, a portable mini-MRI that is 10x cheaper and smaller than those currently used by hospitals and clinics.

MRIs work by measuring the changes in quantum states of atoms when exposed to a magnetic field (this is called the “signal”). The issue however is that this signal is extremely faint and therefore prone to interference from the surrounding environment (called “noise”). To improve the quality and resolution of the images, traditional MRIs use extremely powerful magnets to increase the signal, thereby making the noise appear small in comparison. These powerful magnets are precisely why MRIs are so big (~5 tons) and expensive (~€1M per machine), and thus why they are so scarce (2/3 of the world’s population does not have access to MRIs). Making MRIs smaller and cheaper is thus necessary to democratize this medical technnology globally.

Many companies are trying to solve this problem by using smaller magnetic fields and augmenting the images using AI to overcome the lower resolution. Hyperfine is the leader in this space, and is on track to make $12M in revenue after only 2 years of commercializing their machine. The trouble with this approach however is that it only kind of works, and doesn’t produce images as good as doctors would want.

Chipiron however does it differently: rather than trying to augment the signal with AI (which they still do anyways), they actually build better hardware that combines state of the art quantum sensors called SQUIDs with antennas inspired from space telescopes. Together with cutting edge cryogenics and magnetic shielding, this enables them to both increase the signal AND reduce the noise, yielding a much better signal-to-noise ratio at very low magnetic fields (about 1/3000th of what is routinely used in hospitals).

Here is a video of their lab showing the tech in action (warning: science inside!):

And this is what they are expecting the images produced to look like once the technology matures (“Injected 3T” is the highest performing MRI that requires injecting chemicals into the patient’s bloodstream):

From a market perpective, they don’t have to actually compete with existing MRIs sold to hospitals to be successful. They can simply go for unserved markets that can’t afford the price or size of traditional MRIs, for example in small clinics, doctor offices or developing countries. Icing on the cake? Their technology can even be used to diagnose … batteries! So there is room for diversification down the line.

All this was masterfully executed with only 7 people (of which 6 are PhDs) in just over a year, with very little funding. When you talk to the founders you will understand why: Evan the CEO is an AI engineer who has been digging in that space for years, while Dimitri the CTO is an incredible physicist that explains things so well that it makes you feel like an expert yourself!

They raised a €1M pre-seed a year ago (I was one of their first investor) and are now raising a €6M seed round in which I will be investing again. Chipiron is based in Paris, but Evan is currently in the US fundraising if you want to meet him in person there.

Full deck here

I think you get the point: this is a super deeptech, long term play that has the potential to disrupt a massive industry while making the world’s population healthier. The kind of stuff I like to invest in!

Rand