August 9 (SeeNews) - Sofia Angels Ventures (SAV), a Bulgarian venture capital fund backed by the European Investment Fund (EIF), said that it invested in UK-based cancer diagnostics start-up Digistain as part of the latter's $1 million (977,800 euro) seed funding round.
SAV invested in Digistain alongside US start-up accelerator Y Combinator as well as a number of global private venture capital funds and angel investors, SAV said in a statement last week, without naming the other backers.
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The value of the transaction and the size of the stake were not disclosed.
Digistain, founded in 2020, operates in the US, EU, UK and India. The company applies machine learning algorithms to facilitate the provision of personalised risk reports to breast cancer patients and their physicians, helping reduce the timing and cost of treatment decisions, such as the need for chemotherapy. Digistain's novel platform technology uses infrared light to detect chemical changes occurring in tumor samples, which can accompany the progression of the breast cancer disease.
The fresh funds will enable the medtech start-up to seek approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is a necessary step before it can market its technology in the US. Digistain will also deploy part of the funds to complete new clinical trials, expand its team and kick off commercial activities.
This is SAV's fourth investment. The 13 million euro fund's portfolio, which focuses on early-stage companies already includes ownership in Bulgarian digital devices rental firm Addit, local agritech start-up Ondo, and, since April, Swedish green packaging start-up Hoting Innovations.
($ = 0.9778 euro)