Munich/ Hamburg — hema.to has set itself the task of automating and fully objectifying the clinical analysis of blood data — so-called cytometry — to enable personalized treatment for each person’s individual immune system. Elaia Partners, Heal Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) support the mission of hema.to with a seed financing round of 3.6 million euros. hema.to will use the funding to scale its AI decision support software for blood cancers in European laboratories and provide an initial demonstration of significant improvement in diagnostic quality.
In the diagnosis of blood cancers and other immune diseases by cytometry, specialized analysts and physicians today have to evaluate abstract, high-dimensional point clouds based on their experience and training. This takes a lot of valuable time (between a few minutes and hours per sample, about 20 minutes on average), which is a problem given the enormous and increasing shortage of qualified laboratory personnel. Aside from this increasing pressure on lab staff:inside, this process is notoriously subjective, with individual staff analyses typically differing by 30%.hema.to aims to dramatically improve this process with its state-of-the-art, cloud-based machine learning platform, helping labs manage their caseloads, helping lab staff cope with increasing demand, providing an objective second opinion to any sick person, and providing new insights to physicians to tailor treatment to patients’ individual immune systems.
On a mission to help laboratories worldwide with their clinical cytometry workflows
“Europe’s largest leukemia lab had an urgent need to accelerate its internal analysis workflows and worked with us to develop the world’s first AI prototype. After the successful demonstration of AI-assisted clinical cytometry, we found that all laboratories shared the same manual workflows and pain points. We founded hema.to two years ago to support laboratories worldwide in their clinical cytometry workflows,” said Karsten Miermans, co-founder and CEO of hema.to .
Based on a large and growing database of cytometry data from multiple sources, hema.to has developed algorithms that can predict biomarkers for disease directly from raw blood meter data. This presents a previously unsolved challenge, as the lack of standardized measurement protocols leads to complex data variations that prevent automation. hema.to specializes in combining data from multiple sources to identify predictive biomarkers for disease. The team has already used this technology in clinical routine for decision support in two laboratories — the Institute of Hematopathology in Hamburg and the Result Laboratory Dordrecht — and now plans to increase the number of user:s and supported disease patterns as well as to further improve the quality of the AI models.
hema.to is based in Munich, Germany, and is led by a team of data science experts who have worked closely together for years before hema.to was founded. Since its inception about two years ago, they have made their product CE-IVD compliant, conducted a clinical trial with four centers, and introduced the product into clinical practice in two laboratories. With the second round of funding now raised, the team will be significantly expanded, with a focus on AI and software engineers for product development, but also immunology and cytometry specialists, business development and partnerships.
“The founding team, consisting of three former entrepreneurs of the same company with three PhD profiles, convinced us and is now in the scaling phase. I am delighted that hema.to is Elaia’s first investment in Germany,” says Anne-Sophie Carrese, Managing Partner at Elaia Partners, photo.
About hema.to
hema.to is an easy-to-use clinical decision support software for blood cancers based on cytometry data and using AI. hema.to accelerates and improves the diagnostic workflow and thus helps both diagnosticians and patients. hema.to is CE-IVD and FDA-registered and is already routinely used by leading hematology laboratories. Founded in 2021, hema.to’s mission is to fully objectify clinical analysis of cytometry data so physicians can tailor treatment to their patients’ individual immune systems.vwww.hema.to
About Elaia Partners
Elaia is a top-tier European VC firm with a strong technology DNA. We support tech disruptors with global ambitions from early stage to growth. Over the past 20 years, we have been committed to combining high performance with values.
We are proud to be an active partner of over 100 startups, including success stories such as Criteo (Nasdaq), Orchestra Networks (acquired by Tibco), Volterra (acquired by F5), Mirakl (valued at $3.5 billion in Series E), and Shift Technology (valued at over $1 billion in Series D). www.elaia.com
About Heal Capital
Heal Capital is a European venture capital firm that invests in early and growth-stage technology-based healthcare companies. The 100 million euro fund was initiated and financed by leading private health insurers to actively drive innovation in healthcare. www.healcapital.com
About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances technology start-ups with growth potential and has supported more than 700 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of the fourth fund, HTGF has around 1.4 billion euros under management. The team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts supports the young companies with know-how, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. More than €4.5 billion in capital has been invested in the HTGF portfolio by external investors in more than 2,000 follow-on financing rounds to date. In addition, the fund has already successfully sold shares in more than 160 companies.
Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, KfW Capital, and 45 companies from a wide range of industries.