GE HealthCare leads up to $160m round for cath lab AI imaging start-up Laza Medical

GE HealthCare has led a Series B round of up to $160 million in Laza Medical, a Los Gatos, California company building an AI-powered robotic imaging system for cardiac catheterisation laboratories. Laza announced the financing on 4 November 2026¹.

The round

The financing is structured, and the $160 million figure is a ceiling rather than a sum paid in at once¹. Returning investors Unorthodox Ventures, PA MedTech and AMED joined GE HealthCare in the round¹. Laza is privately held and sits in the portfolio of Shifamed, the medical device incubator founded by Amr Salahieh, who chairs Laza's board¹.

Laza says the money will fund its plan to change how imaging works in the cath lab: simpler procedures, more autonomy for the system, relief for teams short of specialist imaging staff, and a base for robotic interventions later on¹. The software has already been used in a first-in-human clinical study last year. Dr Firas Zahr, head of interventional cardiology at Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital, used it there and said "High-quality imaging is foundational to all successful cases"¹.

Jyoti Gera, who runs cardiovascular and interventional solutions within advanced imaging at GE HealthCare, said the company was "excited to expand our collaboration with Laza"¹. The wording signals that GE HealthCare already worked with Laza before this round and now holds a larger stake in the outcome.

What it means for the market

The lead investor here is a strategic one. GE HealthCare sells imaging equipment into the same cath labs Laza is targeting, so its decision to lead the round ties a large incumbent supplier to an AI and robotics start-up working on image guidance for cardiac procedures¹. Gera framed the aim as integrating imaging modalities so they work together in the cath lab, which points to Laza's system being developed alongside GE HealthCare's own products rather than against them¹.

For other imaging suppliers and for investors in procedural AI, the round shows a large manufacturer choosing to back outside work on AI-guided intervention rather than wait for it to mature. For hospital buyers, the pitch rests on staffing: Laza argues its system can spread scarce imaging expertise across more procedures and cut variation between cases¹. None of that has yet been tested commercially.

The release does not say how the structured tranches are triggered, what share GE HealthCare holds, or whether the partnership includes distribution rights, so the commercial terms between the two companies remain unknown¹.

Caveats

All the information comes from Laza's own announcement. The Laza Medical System is still under development and is not approved for commercial sale anywhere¹. The only clinical experience described is a first-in-human study last year, with no results given, and no timeline for regulatory filings or launch is stated¹.