Zebra Medical Vision said it raised an $8 million funding round led by Khosla Ventures and launched a closed beta version of its medical imaging research platform.

Shefayim, Israel-based Zebra Medical said the platform is designed to help researchers develop algorithms based on large-scale imaging databases. The company said its "commercialization pipeline" will then "expedite clinical application" of the results.

"Advances in machine learning and computer vision have made it possible to create diagnostic quality algorithms based on big data, that surpass current reading accuracy rates. Such algorithms will reduce false positives, identify false negatives, provide earlier diagnosis of cancer or other diseases and unlock incidental findings hidden in the vast amounts of imaging data that resides within archives of health providers," CEO Elad Benjamin said in prepared remarks.

Zebra said its platform is a cloud-based R&D environment that includes access to large databases of de-identified imaging studies, storage and access to the latest graphics processing unit computing power.

The plan is for an initial launch to "select" research groups that apply to the company, including accountable care organizations and health maintenance organizations, the company said.

"Zebra is combining the power of machine learning, computer vision and big data to do just that in medical imaging – creating a sandbox through which imaging innovation can occur and be delivered to patients. We are proud to back such a team and an ambitious endeavor and look forward to seeing the outcomes of the platform," Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said in a statement.

DeepFork Capital and Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), also participated in the round, Zebra Medical said.