Sano Genetics has raised £9 million funding to power precision medicine.
The Cambridge MedTech combines genetic testing, recruitment of patients for trials and long-term engagement with them in one platform, and claims to accelerate enrollment and simplify operations.
The funding was led by Plural with participation from existing investors including MMC Ventures, Episode 1 and Seedcamp.
Founded by Patrick Short (CEO), Charlotte Guzzo (COO) and William Jones (CTO), Sano Genetics experienced 5x ARR growth year-on-year in 2023, doubled its headcount to 62, and expanded into the large pharmaceutical market, working with four of the top 20 pharma companies.
The company is seeing early gains from deploying AI to streamline the trial process. The new funding, which brings the total raised to $22m, will be used to meet the growing demand for its products, leverage AI further and expand its reach to more countries.
https://businesscloud.co.uk/medtech-50-uks-most-innovative-medical-technology-creators/
The platform has supported close to 20+ different studies, from rare and ultra-rare diseases affecting newborn babies, all the way to neurodegenerative diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) – a form of motor neurone disease (MND) – and Parkinson’s.
This experience supporting patients in medical research participation, inspired the platform recently to launch Light The Way, a new programme for families affected by ALS in December 2023.
Light The Way offers peer support, DNA testing, genetic counselling and education. Sano Genetics will use the new funding to run similar programmes to lead the charge for predictive and preventive genetics, as part of its mission to accelerate the future of precision medicine.
Demystifying Tech: Building a tech product – with Lara Gilman
“Precision medicine is transforming how we think about and approach healthcare, and clinical trials are the bedrock of precision drug development,” said Short. “In the past 12 months, we’ve scaled up our capacity to hold three times more trials than the year before and launched our first programme supporting families affected by ALS.
“I’m so pleased with everything the team has achieved so far and this new funding will help us to integrate LLMs and other AI tools to drive more productivity. This will help us continue our growth trajectory, particularly with the help of visionary investors like Carina Namih, who supported our seed round and is now supporting us again at Plural.”
Namih, a partner at Plural, said: “Precision medicine is going to transform how healthcare is delivered but it needs seamless software tools like Sano Genetics’ to accelerate its impact.
“My own experience of the difficulty of running clinical trials during my time leading HelixNano helped me understand profoundly just how sorely a platform like Sano Genetics is needed.
“Patrick and the Sano team have made huge strides in 2023, and I am delighted to be able to continue to support the company to bring faster, more effective clinical trials.”