American Heart Association Ventures Invests in Ultromics

Ultromics Ltd. has secured an investment from the American Heart Association’s venture capital program.

The investment from Go Red for Women Venture Fund—a financial reserve within American Heart Association Ventures—accelerates Ultromics’ efforts to make early heart failure diagnosis a standard practice in cardiac care. Doing so will subsequently expand access to the company’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared artificial intelligence (AI) in use at U.S. hospitals and reimbursed across public and private payers. 

Ultromics’ technology helps clinicians detect heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a condition that disproportionately affects women and is too often missed until it’s advanced. The investment—the second by the Go Red for Women Venture Fund—reflects a shared commitment to advancing innovation and improving outcomes for women.

Heart failure remains one of the leading causes of death for women, yet symptoms of HFpEF like fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling are often dismissed or misattributed to aging, weight or other conditions. Studies show that women are twice as likely as men to develop this form of heart failure, and that up to 64% of cases go undiagnosed in clinical practice. The result is a diagnostic blind spot that leaves many women without access to new, life-prolonging therapies now proven to reduce hospitalizations and improve survival. 

“Closing the diagnostic gap by recognizing disease before irreversible damage occurs is critical to improving health for women—and everyone.,” said Tracy Warren, senior managing director, Go Red for Women Venture Fund. “We are gratified to see technologies, such as this one, that are accepted by leading institutions as advances in the field of cardiovascular diagnostics. That’s the kind of progress our fund was created to accelerate.”

Ultromics’ AI helps reveal what even skilled cardiologists can’t always detect: the subtle changes in a cardiac ultrasound that mark the earliest stages of heart failure. EchoGo Heart Failure is built on one of the largest echocardiography datasets in the world, representing a diverse population of patients. Validated on real patient outcomes instead of subjective human labels, EchoGo analyzes routine ultrasound scans to quantify heart function and identify patterns that signal HFpEF. By validating against diverse outcomes data, the system has demonstrated consistent performance across gender, age, and risk groups, seeing early signs of disease even when symptoms are not obvious. The results give physicians an objective, accurate report within the same workflow hospitals already use. 

“Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is one of the most complex and overlooked diseases in cardiology. For too long, clinicians have been expected to diagnose it using tools that weren’t built to detect it, and as a result, many patients are identified too late,” Ultromics Founder/CEO Ross Upton, Ph.D., stated. “By augmenting physicians’ decision making with EchoGo, we can help them recognize disease at an earlier stage and treat it more effectively.”

Used by U.S. and U.K. hospitals, Ultromics’ AI has analyzed more than 430,000 echocardiograms, making it one of most utilized technologies of its kind, according to the company. In clinical studies, current HFpEF clinical risk scores were non-diagnostic in 60% of patients vs EchoGo Heart Failure which reached a diagnostic decision in 93% of patients, while demonstrating high accuracy and consistency across diverse patient populations. The technology’s validation across multiple research institutions confirms that AI validated on patient outcomes can deliver stronger, fairer results in everyday cardiac care. 

Founded within the University of Oxford, Ultromics is attempting to redefine cardiovascular care with FDA-cleared, AI-powered tools that enhance echocardiographic diagnosis. Built in partnership with the NHS and Mayo Clinic, its EchoGo platform helps clinicians detect complex heart diseases earlier and more accurately—using a standard ultrasound scan. Ultromics is backed by investors and U.S. healthcare systems.