Startup using AI to diagnose cancer raises $30m with help of London investor

Sophia Genetics recently expanded into so-called liquid biopsies, offering an app that can help diagnose cancer by analysing DNA and tumour cells in blood and urine

Sophia Genetics, which was founded in 2011 by academics from Stanford University and Switzerland, provides over 330 hospitals in more than 50 countries with software to analyse genomic profiles (Getty Images)

A startup that’s using artificial intelligence to help analyse the human genome and then diagnose illnesses like cancer and metabolic disorders, has raised $30m in a recent funding round.

Sophia Genetics, which was founded in 2011 by academics from Stanford University and Switzerland, provides over 330 hospitals in more than 50 countries with software to analyse genomic profiles and diagnose patients.

It recently expanded into so-called liquid biopsies, offering an app that can help diagnose cancer by analysing DNA and tumour cells in blood, urine, cerebral spinal fluid and other liquid samples.

The latest funding round was led by London-based Balderton Capital, one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe. Balderton manages around $2.3bn in assets and has invested in more than 100 companies since 2000, including Betfair, before it publicly listed, and LOVEFiLM, before it was sold to Amazon in 2011.

Other investors that participated in the latest funding round include 360o Capital Partners, entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s Invoke Capital and Alychlo, which was started by Belgian pharmaceutical entrepreneur Marc Coucke.

“As diagnostic kits and sequencers become cheaper and more powerful, we believe that there is an opportunity to build the defining software layer on top of these technologies in genomics, just as Windows did for PCs and Android has for smartphones, and Sophia is already leading in this field,” said James Wise, a partner at Balderton Capital.

Jurgi Camblong, chief executive and co-founded of Sophia said that the group aims to break down the “information silos in healthcare, meaning that the information from a patient in London or Paris can for instance help better diagnose and treat a patient in Lagos or Rio”.