A Healthtech startup's app turns smartphones into a Health Canada-approved stethoscope.
Startup in St. John's, the Netherlands, in the medical technology and software sector. Sparrow Bioacoustics has closed C$10 million in funding to bring its stethoscope app to hospitals across North America.
The all-equity round was led by Killick Capital and Klister Credit, with participation from Pelorus VC, Brinex and the family office of the former Verafin Vice President Kevin Baker. Sparrow says the investment supports the company's next phase of growth as it rolls out its Stethophone platform to hospitals across North America.
“It’s about maintaining the momentum we’ve built while continuing to bring real clinical value where it’s needed most.”
Mark Opauski,
Sparrow Bioacoustics
“This round ensures that we can scale responsibly at this critical juncture, supporting hospitals and patients with the same focus on quality and outcomes that brought us here,” Sparrow BioAcoustics CEO Mark Opauski said in a statement. “It’s about maintaining the momentum we’ve built while continuing to bring real clinical value where it’s needed most.”
Founded in 2019, Sparrow's Stethophone turns smartphones into what it calls a medical-grade stethoscope. The app includes patented bioacoustic technology that claims to make heart sounds more audible than medical stethoscopes.
Users can hold the phone against their body, listen, record their heart sounds, and save their findings in the app. The company says the sound is digitally converted into spectrograms and waveforms, allowing healthcare professionals to focus on problem areas or unusual sounds.
Stetophone received approval for use by both healthcare professionals and consumers from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2023 and subsequently from health authorities in the US. Ukraine and Canada last year.
“Last year, approximately 40,000 patients and practitioners used the stethofon, detecting thousands of cardiac abnormalities that might otherwise go undetected until later stages of the disease,” said Dr. Jaroslav Shpak, co-founder and chief medical officer of Sparrow.
Opauski told BetaKit in an emailed statement that Sparrow is now working with most key health systems in the United States, with a particular focus on detecting heart defects.
“We have a high-precision, scalable solution and several new developments that we want to bring to market,” Opauski said. “Canada is not far behind.”
Sparrow closed 10 million dollars in October 2024, bringing total funding to date to approximately $23 million. Opausky joined Sparrow in 2021, having previously led Toronto-based marketing technology startup PathFactory for nine years. In 2019 he almost lost his life with a sudden case of necrotizing fasciitis that forced him to step away from his CEO role and focus on his health.
Image courtesy of Sparrow BioAcoustics.
