Is Helfie AI really Australia’s newest tech unicorn?

The firm says its AI technology can test for health issues including Covid and cancer via a phone app. It also says it’s worth more than $1bn. But questions about the valuation remain unanswered.

Helfie AI claims to be able to test for ailments including Covid and skin cancer via a mobile phone app.

Suddenly Australia has its newest technology unicorn with a coveted $1bn valuation; and there is no surprise artificial technology is at the heart of the business.

But is little-known Helfie AI really a unicorn? And who is behind it?

This week, Helfie AI surfaced in financial press reports claiming it quietly reached a $US750m ($1.1bn) valuation last year, after raising $US33m from investors in what was one of the biggest AI-related capital raises in the country.

The company says its AI technology is capable of testing for health issues ranging from Covid to sexually transmitted infections, stress, skin cancer and tuberculosis via a phone camera scan and chatbots.

Its website says “take a selfie, stay healthy”.

Helfie was reported this week to be about to launch discussions with local and international investors to try to raise between $US100m to $US300m at a $US1bn valuation – one-third more than its current reported and claimed $US750m value.

Yet an analysis of corporate filings by Helfie AI in Australia by The Weekend Australian shows it may be worth far less than reports and its claims suggest.

Documents lodged with the corporate regulator reveal Helfie AI has paid-up capital of about $9.5m and its last injection of funds – $1m from one-time Moderna chief scientific officer and now Helfie AI director Tony De Fougerolles last December – was for shares in the privately-held company that gave it a paper valuation of about $47m.

There is no record of its mooted $US33m capital raising last year on any Australian corporate paperwork.

Former PlayUp founder George Tomeski is the co-founder and chief executive of Helfie AI. Picture: Instagram

An extensive list of questions about Helfie AI’s purported valuation, whether it has instead raised funds overseas under subsidiaries or other entities, its future funding plans, information found on its website, its business plans and information about co-founder and chief executive George Tomeski was sent to a London-based public relations representative.

“Thanks … for reaching out. I’m afraid we won’t be offering any comment on this occasion,” was the single-line reply sent to The Weekend Australian.

The healthcare start-up is headed by co-founder Tomeski, a serial entrepreneur who a decade ago managed to raise $100m from an impressive range of investors including former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, cricket legend Steve Waugh and billionaire Bruce Mathieson, and attract big names like ex-NSW Premier Nick Greiner and former Telstra boss Bob Mansfield to the board of a company called PlayUp.

It was going to be a huge online social gaming company in markets like India and Brazil with forecast revenue in the billions of dollars and a stockmarket listing in its plans.

PlayUp in that incarnation (it is now an online gambling company under different owners) would instead burn through the $100m while gaining little market traction, eventually failing and leaving a string of creditors owed money, with staff entitlements and superannuation unpaid by 2016.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Tomeski is based in London – but with an address in Melbourne’s upmarket Toorak according to Australian corporate records.

He co-founded Helfie in 2020 with entrepreneurs Matt Jones and Nick Chang, and is also a non-executive director and investor in positiv, a lithium battery company with addresses in Australia and China.

Former Moderna executive Tony de Fougerolles is a Helfie AI board member and investor. Picture: LinkedIn

Jones and Chang have since left the firm, and Tomeski has in recent years been promoting Helfie in a handful of overseas media outlets, at healthcare conferences and other online sources.

Helfie says on its website that it is “…a trailblazing mobile and AI company, revolutionising the $9 trillion global healthcare industry with our cutting-edge health screening technology”.

Helfie has said its Covid AI bot Cai has been trained to analyse 48,000 different cough sounds and screen for ones that match with patients who have been diagnosed with Covid.

“As you cough, Cai assesses your lung health, analyses the sounds in your cough, and maps your cough’s energy. Coupled with your answers to three basic questions, Cai can identify your Covid risk in under a minute with 95 per cent accuracy,” Tomeski said in a 2022 online press release.

That same year he told a Singapore radio station that the whole concept of Helfie was “I could point my phone at a problem on my body, or take a photo or record a sound, and we use technology to give you a really accurate assessment of what you may have, and then obviously connect you to the sort of care that you may need thereafter.

“The other piece for us is that we don’t just detect Covid in your cough, we detect other respiratory conditions that may exist. We check your lung health. For example, are your lungs constricted or restricted? What are the implications of that? We check for tuberculosis, which is huge in Africa.”

Tomeski also said Helfie had signed “a couple of significant deals” with African telcos and healthcare providers. It was reported this week that Royal Mail Health in the UK is a customer.

“Helfie creates a great illustration of the everyday use of AI technology,” former Victorian Minister for Innovation Jaala Pulford said on a Channel 9 news television spot in 2020, after being asked about that state’s interest in artificial intelligence start-ups.

Once source claimed Helfie is in the beta stage of testing its technology, and there is a Helfie Cough app available for android users.

Helfie’s shareholders, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents, are led by the British Virgin Islands-domiciled Goldleaf Australian Asset Management.

Goldleaf’s website says it provides business and property finance including loans, credit-approved operating leases and financing of assets such as IT and mining equipment. Jack Dahan is a member of its investment committee.

Melbourne investor Jack Dahan owns a stake in Helfie AI.

Dahan is the principal of Melbourne advisory firm Hennessey Capital Partners and is a director and shareholder of Unicorn Capital Ventures, which is also a Helfie shareholder.

Tomeski is a UCV director and shareholder, as is respected corporate adviser Andrew Butcher.

Other shareholders of Helfie include British Virgin Islands-based Thrive Motion and several individual Melbourne investors. CW Retail, a company connected to Chemist Warehouse billionaires Sam and Jack Gance and Mario Verrocchi also has a stake.

Helfie board members include De Fougerolles and US-based Cheryl Buxton. Michael Stocky, a former financial controller at PlayUp, is Helfie’s company secretary.

Former Citi sustainability banker and debt capital markets head Ian Campbell is now said to be working internally at Helfie and searching for funding in the US – where one source close to Helfie said entrepreneurs may find funding easier than in Australia.

There is no record of Helfie in US corporate filings or at Companies House in the UK.

If Helfie raises the funds it is said to want, and then goes on to great success, Tomeski and other shareholders could be headed for the ranks of The List – Australia’s Richest 250.

Time will tell if the company gets anywhere near that level.

Originally published as Is Helfie AI really Australia’s newest tech unicorn?