StratifAI raises € 12.5 million for precision oncology

StratifAI, a precision oncology startup, has successfully raised €12.5 million in an oversubscribed financing round to accelerate the clinical validation of its AI-based biomarker discovery platform Polaris™. The round was led by Picus Capital, co-led by Alven, with participation from Heliad, Rubin Ritter, Lars Langusch, Jens Begemann and existing investors Debiopharm, Arve Capital and Christoph Haarburger, who are deepening their commitment to StratifAI.

The funds will be used to advance the clinical validation of Polaris™ Breast, the company's first product to assess the risk of recurrence in breast cancer, and to obtain regulatory approvals in the EU and the US. StratifAI is also expanding collaborations with leading oncology institutions and pharmaceutical companies to generate the large-scale clinical evidence required for guideline recommendations and real-world use.

The application of Polaris™ in breast cancer already has enormous potential, but this is just the beginning. With the increasing digitization of histology, the amount of available data is growing exponentially.

Robin Godenrath, Founding Partner & Managing Director at Picus Capital

Biomarker discovery redefined

Polaris™ combines H&E histology with RNASeq gene expression data and links spatial tumor signals directly to patient outcomes. This fully digital, AI-powered approach accelerates biomarker discovery, reduces costs and opens up new prognostic and predictive insights. StratifAI collects tumor samples, generates high-quality data and builds a comprehensive multimodal reference dataset to continuously expand its spatial biomarker portfolio.

Expansion and market opportunities

StratifAI is currently expanding its team and global footprint to develop the next generation of cancer biomarkers. The digital, AI-based platform positions the company to tap into one of the largest untapped markets in cancer diagnostics and provide more personalized and equitable treatment options for patients with solid tumors worldwide.

"This investment will enable us to develop a scalable regulatory framework for clinical AI diagnostics, expand our ecosystem with high-quality, diverse clinical data and provide better tests to support treatment decisions. With the expertise of our investors in global growth, we are setting new standards for faster and more accessible clinical decision tools," said Omar El Nahhas, CEO & Co-Founder of StratifAI.

StratifAI was founded in Berlin and develops AI-powered biomarkers for precision oncology. The Polaris™ platform identifies prognostic and predictive biomarkers from multimodal clinical data and enables individualized treatment strategies for patients with solid tumors. The first product, Polaris™ Breast, assesses the risk of metastases in early breast cancer using digitized histology sections and is currently under regulatory approval for clinical use in the EU and the US.