N23
N23 Health is an AI medical device company focused on closing the global gap in breast cancer outcomes.
Company name
N23 Health AB
When was the company founded?
2025
Do you have any academic affiliations or collaborations?
Yes. N23 Health is a spin-off from Lund University, with affiliations to the Department of Translational Medicine and the Department of Mathematics.
Key academic contributors include:
- Dr. Kristina Lång, Lund University – Chief Medical Officer and co-founder
- Dr. Ida Arvidsson, Lund University – Head of AI and co-founder
- Jennie Karlsson, Lund University – co-founder
Describe your company
N23 Health is an AI medical device company focused on closing the global gap in breast cancer outcomes. Founded by breast radiologist Kristina Lång and AI entrepreneur Lisa Falco, the company enables frontline nurses to triage breast lumps using portable ultrasound technology — delivering specialist-level accuracy without requiring a radiologist, advanced infrastructure or internet connectivity.
With breast cancer cases projected to rise by 38% by 2050, disproportionately affecting low-income countries, mammography alone cannot meet future demand. N23 offers a fundamentally different approach: AI-powered diagnostics that cost approximately USD 0.50 per woman screened, run on handheld ultrasound devices and can be deployed wherever women seek care.
Describe your product/solution
N23 provides an AI-powered software solution designed for handheld point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) devices. The software functions as a clinical decision-support tool, enabling non-specialist frontline healthcare workers — such as nurses and clinical officers — to analyse breast ultrasound images with expert-level accuracy.
Unlike stationary mammography systems, the solution is portable, affordable and requires minimal training. It identifies focal breast abnormalities and provides immediate triage recommendations.
By bridging the gap between ultrasound hardware and diagnostic expertise, N23 transforms handheld ultrasound devices into advanced diagnostic tools suitable for primary care settings worldwide.
What problem are you addressing?
Breast cancer cases are projected to rise by 38% by 2050, while deaths are expected to increase by 68%, particularly in low-income countries where survival rates can be as low as 40%. The challenge is not biological — it is diagnostic.
Clinical breast examinations can detect lumps but cannot reliably determine whether they are benign or malignant. This leads to large numbers of specialist referrals, overwhelming healthcare systems that already lack radiologists and imaging infrastructure. As a result, women with genuine malignancies risk delayed diagnosis and treatment.
Mammography alone cannot solve this challenge. It is costly, infrastructure-dependent and performs less effectively in dense breast tissue, which is more common among younger women — a rapidly growing patient group globally.
What impact does your solution create?
N23 significantly improves both the economics and accessibility of breast cancer screening.
At the healthcare-system level, screening 100,000 women costs approximately USD 120,000 using N23, compared to around USD 2 million with mammography — representing a 94% cost reduction.
The solution can also reduce unnecessary specialist referrals by up to 80%, freeing radiologist capacity for patients with higher clinical need.
At the patient level, women receive answers during the same visit, reducing anxiety, unnecessary travel and follow-up costs. Earlier detection increases the likelihood of diagnosis at an early stage, where survival rates exceed 90%.
At scale, N23 projects that its platform could support triage for 1 million women annually by 2029 and 4 million annually by 2031. With an estimated malignancy detection rate of 5%, this could contribute to tens of thousands of earlier breast cancer diagnoses each year.
What stage of commercialisation are you currently in?
N23 has successfully completed clinical validation and is now pursuing CE marking and market entry planned for early next year.
What are you currently seeking to take the next step?
The company is currently seeking pre-seed funding to support its regulatory process and market entry activities.
What market potential do you see for your solution?
The global AI breast ultrasound market is projected to grow by 14.2% annually, but N23 addresses a significantly larger opportunity by targeting screening gaps that current solutions do not reach.
In low- and middle-income countries alone, more than 1 billion women lack access to reliable breast cancer screening. At a screening cost of approximately USD 0.50 per woman, the addressable market exceeds USD 500 million annually, even at modest market penetration.
In high-income markets, more than 1 million women present with breast lumps annually in the United States alone, highlighting substantial unmet diagnostic needs in primary care.
N23’s platform is designed for both geographic and vertical scalability. International expansion is supported through distributor partnerships and integrations with platforms such as Butterfly Network and GUSI. Over time, the company aims to expand across the broader breast cancer care pathway, including risk stratification, follow-up and patient guidance.
Website:
https://n23.health/
Contact:
Lisa Falco
Chief Executive Officer
lisa@n23.life
