Dresden: Cancilico raises 2.5 million euros to scale up AI-assisted bone marrow diagnostics
Cancilico, an AI diagnostics start-up specializing in blood cancer, today announced the successful completion of its EUR 2.5 million seed financing round.
The investment was made by a strong consortium led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), TGFS - Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, GEDAD GmbH (investment vehicle of the Ehninger family) and ROI Verwaltungsgesellschaft (Roland Oetker).
The funding will accelerate Cancilico's mission to establish its AI-based diagnostic software MyeloAID as a standard tool to improve the standard of care for blood cancer patients worldwide and accelerate the development of digital biomarkers in hematologic malignancies. MyeloAID aims to revolutionize the diagnosis of hematological malignancies by using advanced artificial intelligence to analyze bone marrow samples with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The underlying data model of Cancilico's AI diagnosis is based on a large validated dataset of different malignancies as well as data from healthy individuals. Partnerships with hematopathology centers are further improving the data model, and collaboration with pharma partners is showing early results for accelerated development of biomarkers and therapeutic options for hematologic malignancies.
Especially in times when we are facing a shortage of trained hematologists, such supporting technologies are urgently needed to ensure clinical availability and precision medicine. A special feature of MyeloAID is its design as a platform-independent solution. The technology can be implemented on any commercially available imaging microscope or scanner, allowing laboratories to improve their current diagnostic capabilities without having to replace existing hardware infrastructure. In addition, AI diagnostics is already available and deployed as an RUO variant via Smart In Media's PathoZoom® Scan & LiveView Suite.
The experienced and multidisciplinary team, consisting of CEO Markus Badstübner, CMO Dr. Moritz Middeke, Tim Schmittmann, Sebastian Riechert, Dr. Jan Eckardt, Dr. Karsten Wendt and angel investor Prof. Gerhard Ehninger, works at the interface between data science and clinical hematology. "We are facing a global shortage of hematologists, while the complexity of diagnoses is increasing," said Markus Badstübner, CEO and co-founder of Cancilico. "Our goal is to democratize access to expert-level diagnostics. This investment allows us to navigate the FDA and CE-IVDR regulatory frameworks and bring to market a tool that seamlessly integrates with existing lab hardware to improve patient outcomes without high capital costs."
"Bone marrow analysis is one of the most complex and time-consuming disciplines in hematology," adds Dr. Moritz Middeke, CMO and co-founder. "By training our AI with a variety of healthy and pathological datasets, we have developed a tool that acts as a highly skilled 'digital colleague'. This funding is a critical step in bringing this technology to laboratories, where it will help provide faster and more accurate diagnoses for blood cancer patients."
- About Cancilico
Cancilico is a Dresden-based health tech startup founded in 2023 as a spin-off of the EKFZ for Digital Health at the Dresden University of Technology and the University Hospital Dresden. The company develops AI-powered diagnostic solutions for haematology that aim to automate and improve the accuracy of blood and bone marrow analyses. Its mission is to bring cutting-edge AI technology to routine hematology laboratories to improve the care of blood cancer patients worldwide and drive the development of digital biomarkers in hematology. The founding team includes Markus Badstübner, Dr. Moritz Middeke, Tim Schmittmann, Sebastian Riechert, Dr. Jan Eckardt, Dr. Karsten Wendt and angel investor Prof. Gerhard Ehninger.
Cancilico is deeply rooted in Saxony's life science ecosystem, works together with the regional biotech network Biosaxony and makes an important contribution to the SaxoCell and SEMECO Clusters4Future initiatives. Within these clusters, start-ups such as Cancilico can further develop their strong start-up dynamics and combine them with fast translation channels.