We Venture Capital (We VC), Werfen's corporate venturing arm, has made two new investments with its entry into UK-based Oxford Cancer Analytics (OXcan) and Canada-based Proton Intelligence. Both medical technology startups have together raised around $17 million.
We VC has co-led a $11m Series A into OXcan alongside Cross Border Impact Ventures, Eka Ventures, DigitalDx Ventures, Macmillan Cancer Support, Aurelium Ventures and OKG Capital. Oxcan is headquartered in Oxford, UK.
OXcan is on a mission to drastically transform cancer early detection using frontier proteomics and ML approaches that can detect the deadliest cancers early, when they can still be cured. This blood test can be conducted in an affordable, minimally invasive, and routine manner with superior accuracy and localization capacity in large populations. OXcan has applied their biomarker discovery and validation platform starting from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide.
Louise Warme, Head of We Venture Capital, has declared: "the power of the OXcan proteomics biomarker discovery platform and the data generated by Oxcan stand out against the backdrop of other liquid biopsy companies, indicating a truly superior performance in the identification of early stage lung cancer. We have been very impressed by the team to date and look forward to supporting the company in the next phase of its growth to offer its first product to patients.
Daniel Szulc, Chief Product Officer at Oxcan, has added: "OXcan is working with leading lung cancer screening programs worldwide to develop products that will be fully integrated with existing clinical pathways to enhance lung cancer screening, accelerate adoption, improve patient outcomes, and reduce healthcare system burdens from lung cancer.
In the case of Proton Intelligence, We Venture Capital has announced its investment into the company in a heavily oversubscribed $6.95m Seed round alongside Tenmile, SOSV, LongVC, 15th Rock, Exor Ventures, Trampoline Venture Partners and others. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada with R&D operations in Melbourne, Australia
The company is developing the world´s first non invasive CKM™ for monitoring potassium levels of kidney patients. 1/3 of patients with chronic kidney disease or heart failure unnecessarily stop life-saving therapy after a high potassium event, which ultimately leads to a c.40% increase in 6-month mortality. Proton’s CKM™ technology aims to provide providers and patients accurate, remote, continuous potassium levels allowing precise treatment of these patients.
Louise Warme, says: "We Venture Capital have been impressed by this true breakthrough in electrolyte sensing capability, which will fulfil a critical gap in the current care continuum for many patients at risk from dyskalemia. We look forward to working with the Proton Intelligence team on the next phase of their journey".
"Proton Intelligence´s seed round is a big step forward for people living with cardio-kidney-metabolic conditions — bringing us closer to direct, accurate and real-time potassium monitoring to better health outcomes", adds Sahan Ranamukhaarachchi, CEO of Proton Intelligence
About Proton Intelligence
Proton Intelligence Inc. is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with R&D operations in Melbourne, Australia. The company is revolutionizing healthcare with its continuous electrolyte monitoring technology, starting with CKM™ for potassium (akin to continuous glucose monitoring in diabetes). The CKM™ platform addresses a critical challenge in cardio-kidney-metabolic disease management by enabling the safe implementation of optimal medical therapies.
About Oxcan Cancer Analytics
Oxford Cancer Analytics (OXcan) is on a mission to drastically transform cancer early detection and management to impact millions of lives worldwide. OXcan’s multidisciplinary team is developing a new generation of liquid biopsy blood tests using cutting-edge proteomics and explainable machine learning approaches that can detect the deadliest cancers early, when they can still be cured. This blood test can be conducted in an affordable, minimally invasive, and routine manner with superior accuracy and localization capacity in large populations. OXcan has applied their biomarker discovery and validation platform starting from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, and achieved ISO13485 certification status
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About We Venture Capital
We Venture Capital is a specialized fund investing in diagnostics, as well as tools and digital solutions in the diagnostics area. Being the corporate investment arm of Werfen, a worldwide leader in specialized diagnostics, We Venture Capital is an active investor, leveraging the network and knowledge from Werfen to the benefit of our investments.
We invest in and partner with early-stage startups close to market entry or early scale-ups, working close with our portfolio to support their growth over time. We are firm believers of technical advancement as a means to improve patient outcomes and revolutionize healthcare.
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