Bia Health raises $2.15M for AI diagnostic assistant

Quebec City healthtech startup Bia Health raised $2.15 million on Oct. 14 to scale an artificial intelligence assistant that helps clinicians avoid tests unlikely to improve patient outcomes, the company said.

The round combines equity led by Anges Québec with $1.4 million in debt from Montreal-based Finalta Capital, according to BetaKit. Desjardins also took part through its Startup en résidence program. The company has not published its own release on the round, and the figures here come from the BetaKit report.

Anne-Sophie Paquet, a physiotherapist who co-founded Bia in 2016 and serves as chief executive, said the company began as a provider of e-learning modules and medical content. It changed course after concluding that “the bigger problem was not access to evidence, but helping clinicians apply it at the point of care,” BetaKit reported.

The Bia Assistant draws on a library of medical and scientific knowledge to help clinicians reach diagnoses. The company said it is meant to support clinical judgment, not replace it, and aims to cut tests that do not match evidence-based guidelines.

Bia reports $500,000 in annual recurring revenue. It signed an agreement with Santé Québec in the Capitale-Nationale region for a six-month pilot with 100 clinicians focused on musculoskeletal care, including osteoarthritis and bone fractures. BetaKit reported no clinical outcome data and no regulatory approvals.

The company said wide adoption in primary care could save Quebec up to $100 million a year. It also said low-value care makes up an estimated 30 per cent of health care in Canada. Both figures are Bia’s own estimates and were not independently verified. Bia plans to expand to the United States, which it sees as a much larger market.

The pilot arrives as Quebec’s health agency tests other AI tools. Santé Québec put an app called Navig into use in April on the Info-Santé 811 line, where non-clinical agents handle adult influenza and gastroenteritis calls, Canadian Healthcare Technology reported. Kathy Malas, a Santé Québec West-Central Montreal network director, said callers are waiting less. The average wait on those calls fell from nearly an hour to about 15 minutes, according to the report.

The two projects differ in scope. Navig routes callers, while Bia’s tool supports diagnostic decisions by clinicians, which is likely to draw closer scrutiny of its evidence and any regulatory classification as it moves beyond the pilot.

The round is small next to the federal money flowing to AI. Ottawa added $500 million to its regional AI program this week, bringing the total to $700 million. Other Canadian AI health companies have also drawn capital recently, including Toronto’s Altis Labs, which raised $25 million for cancer trial work.

Paquet said the company sees musculoskeletal care as a foothold before it expands to other diagnostic areas. Results from the Quebec pilot have not been announced.

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Sources: BetaKit (Oct. 14, 2026); Canadian Healthcare Technology (July 15, 2026).