Northwell VC arm backs company detecting emotions with AI in $12.7M round

Northwell VC arm backs company detecting emotions with AI in $12.7M round unknown

Northwell Holdings, the venture capital arm of New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health, is again backing Hume AI, a startup aiming to detect emotions using artificial intelligence, in a $12.7 million funding round for the company.

Its potential applications include telehealth diagnosis, patient monitoring and digital therapy. The company also has partnerships with New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System, Boston Medical Center, and Boston-based Harvard Medical School. Northwell Holdings also invested $3 million in the startup in September.

"Really the component that is most impressive is that Hume's models have been trained to analyze emotion across very diverse ages and demographic groups, which can help remove bias as well as misinterpretation," said Richard Mulry, president and CEO of Northwell Holdings, in a Jan. 27 LinkedIn post. "This is important because Northwell Health has a very rich and diverse patient base."

Union Square Ventures led the series A funding round, which also included Comcast Ventures, LG Technology Ventures and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp.