Cape Town-based healthtech startup AI Diagnostics has secured R85m (roughly $4.5m–$5m) in a pre-Series A funding round to accelerate the rollout of its AI-powered digital stethoscope.
The round was led by The Steele Foundation for Hope, with participation from the iFSP Group and the Global Innovation Fund. Follow-on funding came from early angel investors, as well as previous backers Africa Health Ventures and Savant.
The capital will be used to fund ongoing clinical research, validate the company’s AI models, and build the operational infrastructure needed to scale its hardware across South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.
At the core of the startup’s pitch is a hardware and software play designed for resource-constrained environments: the Ostium digital stethoscope. Paired with proprietary AI software (AI.TB), the device is built to detect tuberculosis (TB) by analyzing lung sounds in real time, removing the immediate need for specialist equipment or highly trained clinicians during the initial screening phase.
The silent spread of TB
South Africa continues to grapple with one of the highest TB burdens globally. According to the WHO’s 2025 World TB Report, 249,000 people in the country fell ill with the disease in 2024, resulting in an estimated 54,000 deaths.
The high mortality and transmission rates are driven by a combination of systemic hurdles. Most notably, TB often spreads silently; a national prevalence survey indicated that 58% of people who test positive for TB report no symptoms, rendering traditional symptom-based screening highly ineffective.
This detection gap is worsened by access issues. Clinics in high-burden areas frequently operate understaffed and without essential diagnostic equipment like X-ray machines. Furthermore, the HIV-TB co-epidemic severely complicates care — in certain parts of southern Africa, over half of all TB cases occur in patients living with HIV.
Rethinking the stethoscope
AI Diagnostics, founded in 2020 by Braden van Breda, Johan Coetzee, and Mark van Breda, aims to shift the diagnostic bottleneck by equipping community health workers, nurses, and pharmacists with better frontline tools.
When a healthcare worker uses the Ostium stethoscope, the AI model listens for specific acoustic signals associated with TB. If flagged, the patient is immediately referred for definitive diagnostic testing.
“The AI model flags individuals whose lung sounds have signals associated with TB in real time,” says CEO Braden van Breda. “For health systems trying to close the detection gap, this changes the availability and the geography of screening.”
The startup already holds regulatory approval from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) and has screened over 1,000 patients domestically. It is currently expanding its clinical research footprint across more than 10 countries in Africa and Asia.
Investors note that the hardware has been specifically engineered to survive harsh clinical conditions, a factor often overlooked by medical device manufacturers based in the Global North.
“They didn’t design its technology from a distance. They built it in South Africa, one of the world’s highest-burden countries, with clinical partners on the ground,” says Joe Exner, CEO of The Steele Foundation for Hope. “That proximity shapes everything: how the device is engineered for harsh clinic conditions [and] the lung sound database they’ve spent years assembling.”
Global health as a commercial market
Historically, diseases that disproportionately impact low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have struggled to attract venture capital, often being relegated to philanthropic efforts or government grants. However, AI Diagnostics’ investors argue that building tools for high-burden settings is increasingly viewed as a commercially viable venture.
“It signals that investors increasingly see global health not as philanthropy but as a viable and necessary area of commercial investment,” says van Breda.
Lily Steele, Managing Director of Investments at the Global Innovation Fund, notes that constraints faced by South African medtechs — such as cost sensitivity and infrastructure limitations — often result in highly adaptable products. “AI Diagnostics demonstrates that it is possible to build high-quality, globally relevant solutions from within Africa that are both impact-driven and commercially viable,” she says.
While the company’s immediate focus is addressing the TB epidemic, the fundamental technology opens doors to a broader diagnostic market. The stethoscope has remained largely unchanged for over a century, but AI Diagnostics’ backers expect a rapid evolution in the coming decade.
Moving forward, the company plans to explore how its acoustic AI technology can be adapted to screen for a wider array of respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, potentially turning a routine check-up tool into a comprehensive early-warning system for global health providers.