Cognoa raises $11.6m for early autism identification in kids
California-based digital health platform Cognoa, which offers a screening and support platform to help spot the early signs of autism in children, has secured $11.6m from existing investor Morningside. Cognoa also launched a platform for employers aimed at offering working parents support via their health plans. The funds will be used to pursue more clinical validation and approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration for what the company said is the first machine learning-based diagnostic tool for early diagnosis of developmental delays.

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Digital health platform Cognoa has raised $11.6 million from existing investor Morningside, taking the company’s total funding to more than $20 million since its inception in 2013.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Cognoa helps parents concerned about their kids’ development through a screening and support platform that makes it easier to spot developmental delays such as might appear with autism. Combining machine learning with patients’ own recorded reports (patient-reported outcomes – PROs), Cognoa promises earlier diagnosis, which in turn enables more effective medical interventions for the children concerned.

Cognoa also recently launched a platform specifically for employers, designed to help give working parents access to support as part of a company’s broader health benefits’ schemes, which means lower costs for the parent and “less distraction” for them while they’re at work.

The new funding will be used to further develop Cognoa’s machine-learning smarts and to expand the platform’s commercialization with employers and clinicians. It will also be used to pursue more clinical validation and approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for what the company calls the “first machine learning-based diagnostic for early diagnosis of developmental delays,” according to a statement.

“Our goal is to improve families’ lives while supporting clinicians by enabling earlier diagnosis and improved outcomes for children,” explained Cognoa CEO Brent Vaughan. “Cognoa’s next phase of growth will involve not only engaging in additional clinical validation and pursuing FDA approvals, but also working with employers and health plans to offer our clinically validated assessment and child development support platform to employers to support their parents in the workplace.”

Though Cognoa is available to individual families, the company’s interest in becoming part of employers’ health benefit programs isn’t surprising, and it follows a recent spate of investments into startups targeting enterprise health care. Back in August, Accolade closed a whopping $93.6 million funding round for a platform that guides employees through the “costly, complex, and fragmented” world of health care.

Elsewhere, Livongo recently raised $52.5 million to grow its digital health platform for people with chronic conditions, while Vida Health closed a $18 million round to connect people with chronic diseases to health coaches. While both companies are open to individuals, they’re also both heavily invested in targeting companies that aim to improve the health of their employees.