- Intu Diagnostics, a Fraunhofer spinout primarily based in Leipzig, has raised €1.1 million in a bridge spherical, bringing its complete funding to greater than €3 million. The spherical was backed by BSV Ventures and SAB.
- The startup has created a PCR-quality HPV check that works and not using a lab, electrical energy, or educated employees. Customers see outcomes from a color change in simply half-hour.
- Cervical most cancers causes about 350,000 deaths amongst girls annually. Round 85% of those circumstances happen in nations that lack ample laboratory amenities for routine screening.
Yearly, about 350,000 women die from cervical cancer, despite the fact that most circumstances could possibly be prevented. The largest problem is logistics, not medication. PCR testing, the gold normal for detecting HPV, requires a lab, educated employees, and specialised tools that many locations lack.
Intu Diagnostics, a firm from the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Leipzig, needs to take away these obstacles. The corporate lately raised €1.1 million in a bridge spherical, bringing its complete funding to over €3 million.
BSV Ventures, a Baltic deep-tech and life science fund with places of work in Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland, supported the spherical, together with the Saxonian Growth Financial institution and several other enterprise angels.
The funds will go towards defending mental property, operating pilot manufacturing trials, and preparing for the following seed spherical.
What Intu has constructed
Intu Diagnostics, based in 2023 in Leipzig by Dr Skaiste Arbaciauskaite and Dr Dirk Kuhlmeier, is creating an all-in-one diagnostic cartridge that detects a pathogen’s genetic materials utilizing the identical technique as lab PCR exams, however with none further tools.
There is no such thing as a want for a reader machine, energy supply, app, or particular coaching. Customers simply acquire a pattern, put it within the cartridge, and examine for a color change inside half-hour. The package contains every little thing wanted.
This technique could be very totally different from normal speedy antigen exams, which detect proteins and supply sooner outcomes however typically miss infections. Intu’s platform works on the molecular stage, which the corporate says means fewer false negatives and no want for the standard lab setup for molecular exams.
The primary use of Intu’s platform is HPV screening in girls’s well being, an space that’s attracting extra investor consideration. For instance, Teal Health in the US recently raised $10 million for at-home cervical most cancers screening, and French startup En Carta Diagnostics got $1.5 million for inexpensive paper-based HPV exams.
Intu plans to broaden its platform to check for respiratory viruses like COVID-19, RSV, and flu, and later for sexually transmitted infections, malaria, and tuberculosis. These illnesses typically have an effect on folks in low-resource areas. In 2020, a prototype was examined in Tanzania in collaboration with the Kilimanjaro Scientific Analysis Institute to diagnose eye infections attributable to Chlamydia trachomatis, the main infectious explanation for blindness worldwide.
The market Intu is concentrating on
Cervical most cancers is the fourth most typical most cancers in girls worldwide. The WHO experiences about 660,000 new cases and 350,000 deaths in 2022, with 85% of circumstances in creating nations. In these locations, HPV causes almost 12% of all tumours in girls. Late analysis results in worse outcomes, and poor screening infrastructure makes issues more durable. Though girls’s well being is rising quick in enterprise capital, getting diagnostics into low-resource markets stays a giant problem.
The purpose-of-care diagnostics market, which affords exams that ship outcomes near the affected person somewhat than in central labs, is very aggressive. Nonetheless, Intu faces much less direct competitors.
Abbott’s ID NOW and Cepheid’s Xpert platforms present speedy molecular outcomes however require powered units. Becton Dickinson and bioMérieux work in central labs. Proper now, not one of the massive firms affords a molecular check that’s electricity-free and instrument-free for shoppers or low-resource settings.
What comes subsequent
The bridge spherical is supposed to assist Intu attain essential targets for its subsequent seed funding, similar to securing mental property, creating a manufacturable cartridge, and gathering pilot information prepared for manufacturing.
Since its €1.8 million pre-seed spherical in 2024, the staff has grown to 12 folks and has participated in business occasions throughout three continents. The corporate plans to launch client exams in 2027.
One of many essential challenges for the following seed spherical is demonstrating that the product can ship molecular-level accuracy and function with minimal infrastructure, whereas remaining inexpensive for the ladies who want it most. The bridge spherical helps the corporate preserve transferring towards this purpose.
