Valuations in the med-tech space lately call into question the old medical adage: “If you hear hoofbeats, think horses.” These days, you would be wise to consider unicorns in the differential diagnosis. Two new companies achieved the formerly rare status just this week. Viz.ai Inc.’s closing today of a $100 million series D financing propelled it into the stratosphere with a $1.2 billion valuation, joining Bostongene LLC which completed its own $150 million round Wednesday.

Cardiorenal is advancing a digital solution for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients with a new seed investment. The Grenoble, France-based startup’s product Tenor attracted $3.7 million from investors to secure regulatory clearance in the U.S. and Europe.

3Spine Inc. has raised $33 million in an oversubscribed series C private offering for a phase II clinical study to assess what it calls “the first total joint replacement” for the lower back. This brings total private investment in the Balancedback total joint replacement to $50.3 million, largely due, said 3Spine CEO Marc Peterman, to “tremendous clinical outcomes and a mountain of benchtop research.”

T2 Biosystems Inc. is accelerating development of its T2biothreat and T2resistance panels, direct-from-blood panels that detect the six pathogens most likely to be weaponized and 13 common antibiotic resistance genes, respectively. A $4.4 million Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) cost-sharing contract will be used to advance clinical trials for the tests. The total potential funding from BARDA under the contract is $69 million.

Following a traumatic birth experience with her second child, Baymatob Ltd. Founder and engineer Sarah McDonald felt she had a moral obligation to do something to help women, and she developed a wearable device that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify mothers during labor who are at high risk of developing abnormal postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) well before giving birth. 

Just nine months after a $55 million series B fundraising round, Billiontoone Inc. delivered an oversubscribed series C of $125 million. Demand for the company’s Unity prenatal test, which can assess fetal risk for common recessive conditions and aneuploidies using one maternal blood sample, tripled over the last year.