Pearl, a West Hollywood-based computer vision diagnostics tool, announced on Wednesday it raised $58 million – the largest raise in dental artificial intelligence to date.
Second Opinion, its platform dedicated to reading dental X-rays and identifying cavities and other maladies, was the first product of its kind to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in 2022.
The fresh funding was led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from a handful of other venture firms including Hollywood-based Smash Capital. Pearl has raised $69 million to date and is now valued at $400 million, per Bloomberg.
“We’re not quite a unicorn yet here, but hopefully on our way,” chief executive Ophir Tanz said.
Tanz founded Pearl in 2019 after spending years in the advertising tech industry. His previous company, Gumgum, used computer vision to determine how actions or visuals by brands would be perceived by the public. In 2015 he decided to use the same technology in radiography.
“After a lot of exploration I landed on dentistry, partially because my dad is a dentist, but also because I think it is the medical field best suited for the rapid adoption of this technology,” Tanz said.
Adoption of such tools has been slow – a 2022 survey by the American College of Radiology found that 70% of radiologists had no plans to integrate AI largely because they were wary of how the black box technology worked. But, Tanz said, dentistry has been more welcoming to such tools than other parts of the medical field.
“There are massively more X-rays captured every year and every day in dentistry than other forms of medicine,” Tanz said. “There is significant clinical need. In dentistry, you don’t have dedicated radiologists.”
That doesn’t mean AI-driven diagnostic tools haven’t surged in popularity. In just the first quarter of 2024, health care-focused AI platforms raised $10.7 billion, according to Pitchbook. The same time last year, that category raised $10.6 billion. The FDA has approved around 500 medical AI tools, 400 of which are used in radiology. The idea is these tools can see what doctors may have missed – hence Pearl’s platform’s name Second Opinion.
Many AI startups are based in the L.A. area. Sawtelle-based PictorLabs Inc., which uses AI to virtually stain histological slides, has raised $34.03 million since it was founded in 2019. Westwood-based Hura Imaging, an AI-driven imaging platform, was founded in 2016 and raised $6 million in 2023. Woodland Hills-based Eyenuk, which uses AI to help diagnose diabetic retinopathy, was the first of its kind to receive FDA clearance in 2020.
Tanz said the platform has helped dentists increase case acceptance by 30%. It now operates in more than 120 countries and the company has invested heavily in its sales team and in getting operators on the ground. The system integrates with 27 dentistry software systems that have been used for decades by dental practices. Pearl also uses data from its Second Opinion platform to create a slew of patient management offerings, including checking insurance eligibility.
