Mindpeak’s AI assists in quantifying tumor cells in breast cancer

Mindpeak, a Hamburg, Germany-based startup developing software to assist pathologists in clinical routine cancer diagnostics, today announced that it has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Innovationsstarter Funds 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.

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“We thank our team and investors for their support and trust,” said Faber, who founded Mindpeak in 2018 with Dr. Tobias Lang. “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 support the pathologist towards detecting tumor and malignant cells in human tissue.”

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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.

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Mindpeak’s first product assists the pathologist in identifying and quantifying the tumorous region and detecting breast cancer cells, a task that is traditionally very tedious and time consuming for physicians. Pathologists 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.

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Mindpeak’s team is comprised of world-leading data scientists with alumni from U Cambridge, UC Berkeley, SCR Princeton, and TU Munich. CEO 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 everyday. Both co-founders have educational backgrounds in computer science and artificial intelligence.

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“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.

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“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.