Dental company with machine learning focus raises $11M

A Los Angeles-based startup, GumGum, has raised $11 million in financing and spun out a new healthcare startup focused on the dental industry, according to TechCrunch. GumGum has applied machine learning to advertising and sports, making it an adtech giant in the region over the last decade.

The new spinoff, Pearl, is a separate business that will focus on the healthcare sector, which has remained largely untouched by machine learning applications, according to co-founder of GumGum, Ophir Tanz. Dentistry offers another opportunity for disruption.

“The thing with dentistry is that it’s always somehow the forgotten medicine, but it’s such a massive market opportunity,” Tanz told TechCrunch.

Applying machine learning in dentistry can have several outcomes:

  • Reducing fraud for insurers
  • Validating dentists’ performances
  • Automating workflows inside the dental office
  • Integrating diagnostic tools that can be distributed and updated remotely

Pearl may eventually move into other healthcare realms, as well, according to Tanz.

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Amy Baxter

Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."

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