MindPeak Raises $3 million to Improve Cancer Diagnostics with Deep Learning

Pres­se­mit­tei­lung als Download

Sep­tem­ber 23, 2019

Ham­burg, Ger­ma­ny-based Mind­Peak is deve­lo­ping AI soft­ware to impro­ve patho­lo­gists’ productivity
and abili­ty to accu­ra­te­ly dia­gno­se can­cer in cli­ni­cal settings.

Mind­Peak, a Ham­burg, Ger­ma­ny-based start­up deve­lo­ping soft­ware to assist his­topa­tho­lo­gists in clinical
rou­ti­ne can­cer dia­gno­stics, today announ­ced that it has rai­sed EUR 3 mil­li­on in seed fun­ding led by
Inno­va­ti­ons­star­ter Fonds Ham­burg (IFH), with par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on from Apex Ven­tures, Nina Capi­tal, Motu
Ven­tures and pro­mi­nent angel inves­tors. Mind­Peak will use the funds to bring their first pro­duct, a
quan­ti­fi­ca­ti­on tool for breast can­cer, to mar­ket and expand their pro­duct port­fo­lio to addi­tio­nal cancer
types.
“We thank our team and inves­tors for their sup­port and trust,” said Felix Faber, who foun­ded MindPeak
in 2018 with Dr. Tobi­as Lang after both lost rela­ti­ves to can­cer. “Mind­Peak is focu­sed on buil­ding the
robust and high­ly accu­ra­te can­cer dia­gno­stic sup­port tools that are easi­ly acces­si­ble and cost effective
in cli­ni­cal envi­ron­ments. This fun­ding vali­da­tes our ear­ly pro­gress that we have made working with
lea­ding labs, rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons, and cli­ni­cal part­ners to detect tumor and mali­gnant cells in human
tissue.”
Part­ne­ring with renow­ned rese­arch insti­tu­tes, such as the Cha­ri­té Hos­pi­tal Ber­lin, and cli­ni­cal labs in
Ham­burg and Cam­bridge, Mind­Peak has deve­lo­ped soft­ware that works out of the box and is robust
against all varia­ti­ons in the lab.
MindPeak’s first pro­duct assists the his­topa­tho­lo­gist in iden­ti­fy­ing and quan­ti­fy­ing the tumo­rous region
and detec­ting breast can­cer cells, a task that is tra­di­tio­nal­ly very tedious and time con­sum­ing for
phy­si­ci­ans. His­topa­tho­lo­gists gene­ral­ly spend their time exami­ning slides and tis­sue samples to classify
lar­ge num­bers of tumor cells, MindPeak’s solu­ti­on great­ly impro­ves the patho­lo­gists through­put and
accu­ra­cy by sup­port­ing them towards detec­ting and clas­si­fy­ing ten times more cells in just a frac­tion of
the time.
MindPeak’s team is com­pri­sed of world-lea­ding data sci­en­tists with alum­ni from Cam­bridge, UC
Ber­ke­ley, SCR Prince­ton, and TU Munich. CEO Felix Faber is an expe­ri­en­ced entre­pre­neur with past
suc­cessful exits and an IPO in his track record. Co-foun­der Dr. Tobi­as Lang pre­vious­ly deve­lo­ped deep
lear­ning solu­ti­ons for lar­ge e‑commerce com­pa­nies that are used by mil­li­ons of peo­p­le every day. Both
co-foun­ders have edu­ca­tio­nal back­grounds in com­pu­ter sci­ence and arti­fi­ci­al intelligence.
“Our invest­ment in Mind­Peak is part of our stra­tegy to invest in Deep Tech com­pa­nies that are centered
around a meaningful sci­en­ti­fic dis­co­very or uni­que engi­nee­ring inno­va­ti­on to impro­ve medical
dia­gno­stics and pati­ent out­co­mes,” said Apex Ven­tures Part­ner Dr. Gor­don Eul­ler. “We are thril­led by
MindPeak’s tech­no­lo­gy and the very posi­ti­ve mar­ket respon­se in adop­ting their products.”
“We are extre­me­ly hap­py to sup­port an inno­va­ti­ve com­pa­ny like Mind­Peak who, in my point of view,
will play an important role in impro­ving pati­ent care. The city of Ham­burg has a strong inte­rest of
pro­mo­ting local cham­pi­ons to form a thri­ving health­ca­re start­up eco­sys­tem.“ said Senator
West­ha­ge­mann from the City of Hamburg.
“The team with its impres­sing tech­no­lo­gy is going to enter in a high volu­me mar­ket which is
cha­rac­te­ri­zed by a very low degree of digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on. Mind­Peak addres­ses a high demand for right and
quick dia­gno­stics for can­cer which will beco­me even more and more important in the future” said IFH
Invest­ment Mana­ger Gen­cer Sahin.

About Mind­Peak GmbH
MindPeak’s mis­si­on is to increase the accu­ra­cy of can­cer dia­gno­stics and make it acces­si­ble to everyone
who is in need. Mind­Peak deve­lo­ps soft­ware tools based on arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence to assist the pathologist
in dai­ly rou­ti­ne. MindPeak’s solu­ti­ons redu­ce cos­ts of dia­gno­sis of up to 90% while impro­ving its
accuracy.

Cont­act:
Mind­Peak GmbH
Felix Faber
Zir­kus­weg 2
20359 Hamburg
T: +49 40 3567 6797
felix.faber@mindpeak.ai
https://www.mindpeak.ai/

About Inno­va­ti­ons­star­ter Fonds Hamburg
The Inno­va­ti­ons­star­ter Fonds Ham­burg pro­vi­des ven­ture capi­tal to young and inno­va­ti­ve companies
with its place of busi­ness in Ham­burg. The aim is to streng­then rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment activities.
Open par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in limi­t­ed lia­bi­li­ty com­pa­nies can reach up to 1 mil­li­on Euros. Inves­tors are in equal
shares the city of Ham­burg and the Euro­pean Regio­nal Deve­lo­p­ment Fund (EFRE). The manage­ment of
the fund is the IFB Inno­va­ti­ons­star­ter GmbH which is a 100% owned sub­si­dia­ry of the Hamburgischen
Inves­ti­ti­ons- und Förderbank.

Cont­act:
IFB Inno­va­ti­ons­star­ter GmbH
c/o IFB Hamburg
Gen­cer Sahin, Invest­ment Manager
Besen­bin­der­hof 31
20097 Hamburg
T: +49 40 6579 805 96
sahin@innovationsstarter.com
www.innovationstarter.com

About APEX Ven­tures GmbH
APEX Ven­tures is a Euro­pean ven­ture capi­tal firm, head­quar­te­red in Vien­na and Frank­furt, focu­sed on
high-tech start­ups with a mis­si­on to sup­port the most talen­ted foun­ding teams in buil­ding glo­bal market
lea­ders. Their new fund APEX Digi­tal Health will be a dedi­ca­ted health­ca­re fund to sup­port innovative
foun­ders who are com­mit­ted to impro­ve pati­ent out­co­mes and make health­ca­re more affordable.

Cont­act:
APEX Ven­tures GmbH
Dr. Gor­don Eul­ler, Part­ner APEX Digi­tal Health
Habs­bur­ger­gas­se 2/1a
1010 Wien
T: +43 664 110 22 40
gordon@apex.ventures
www.apex.ventures