Oxford Cancer Analytics brings in US$11m in Series A funding
Medtech Oxford Cancer Analytics (OXcan) said it has raised US$11m in Series A funding from global investors, including in-field institutional investors in disease detection and diagnostics.
The company, based in Oxford and Toronto, is developing a new generation of liquid biopsy blood tests using proteomics and explainable machine learning, which can detect the deadliest cancers early, when they can still be cured.
The latest funding round was led by We Venture Capital and Cross-Border Impact Ventures with participation from return investors Eka Ventures, and Civilization Ventures, and new investors DigitalDx Ventures, Macmillan Cancer Support (Innovation Impact Investment Portfolio), Aurelium Ventures, OKG Capital, and several prominent angel investors.
It brings OXcan's total funding to date to US$16.7 million, positioning it to globally commercialize its new generation of blood tests.
Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths worldwide and OXcan is addressing the problem.
"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," said Louise Warme, MD, head of WeVenture Capital.
"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."
Concurrent with the funding round, Gemma Sturt, senior investment manager at We VentureCapital, Werfen's corporate venture arm and Annie Theriault, managing partner at Cross-Border Impact Ventures have joined the OXcan board of directors.
OXcan has also appointed Dr Heinrich Roder as senior vice president (SVP), research and development (R&D).
With over two decades of experience in lung cancer liquid biopsy and commercialization at a Nasdaq-listed company, Dr Roder will focus on developing OXcan’s lung cancer blood test for deployment.
"Having developed blood-based proteomic tests for lung cancer for over two decades, I appreciate the difficulty of detecting cancers early through liquid biopsy,” he said.
"Convinced that OXcan’s unique approach can address this clinical need, I feel privileged to join the team. Together, our plan is to offer this novel technological approach to large markets worldwide to start a new era of early detection and improve patient outcomes."
