Hamburg start-up Mindpeak receives funding of 2 million Euros
The Hamburg-based start-up Mindpeak has successfully raised grant funding totalling around 2 million euros. The funding comes from the EU Commission's Horizon 2020 program and the Profi Transfer funding pool of the Hamburg Investment and Development Bank. Via image recognition systems, Mindpeak’s proprietary algorithms help increase the productivity of pathology labs in clinical routine and promise to support pathologists in their work to precisely diagnose cancers based on digital slides. Mindpeak cooperates with renowned research institutions such as the Charité Berlin and laboratories in Hamburg and Cambridge. The company's solution is immediately ready for use in the laboratory setting without the need for any complex pre-adjustment.
"I am very pleased about these funding commitments. They are proof of the innovative power of our research and products and of the strong endorsement by the European Union and the City of Hamburg in our recent traction and goal to deliver fast, reliable and widely accessible cancer diagnostic tools," said Mindpeak's Managing Director Felix Faber. Faber founded the company two years ago with his partner Dr. Tobias Lang. Mindpeak currently employs 25 people and has already launched the first products for the identification and quantification of breast cancer cells.
"The highly selective funding from the EU program Horizon 2020 and Profi Transfer confirm our investment in Mindpeak as a very innovative startup in the area of cancer diagnostics," said Gencer Sahin, Investment Manager at IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH.
Funds from the EU Horizon 2020 EIC (Enhanced European Innovation Council) program are used to support start-ups as well as small and medium-sized companies that develop highly innovative ideas with an exceptionally large market potential. The Profi Transfer program of the Hamburg Investment and Promotion Bank (IFB) supports the transfer of technology and knowledge between companies and universities or research institutions with grants. Mindpeak received IFB's funding to support its close cooperation towards the development of AI-supported cancer diagnostics with the renowned Institute for Haematopathology Hamburg. "The funds will be used on the one hand to further develop and continuously improve our algorithm for the detection of specific cancer types such as breast cancer at present, as well as to extend the application of our machine learning models to new cancer types," explained Faber.
