Definiens AG, a Munich, Germany-based provider of a tissue diagnostics platform aimed at helping physicians improve treatment announced that it has closed a round of financing for € 15 Million. The round was co-led by new investor Wellington Partners and existing investor Gilde Healthcare with participation from other existing investors Cipio Partners and TVM Capital. In conjunction with the financing, Dr. Rainer Strohmenger, General Partner and Managing Director for Wellington, will join Definiens’ Board of Directors.
The company intends to use the funds to grow its global business in digital pathology image analysis and expand into digital tissue diagnostics. Major investments will be made in executing the company’s Tissue Phenomics strategy, enabling partnerships with leading medical centers and pharmaceutical companies to advance the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Tissue Phenomics is based on Definiens’ proprietary Cognition Network Technology®, invented by Nobel laureate and founder Prof. Gerd Binnig and involves a unique big data approach to develop new tissue-based diagnostic tests for oncology and immunotherapy. Using these new diagnostic tests will allow for better prediction of patient outcomes and identification of drug responders, thereby bridging the gap between genomic data and cancer outcomes.
About Definiens
Led by Thomas Heydler, CEO, and Dr. Gerald Möller, Chairman, Definiens has developed technology for discovery and diagnostics development in oncology and provides image analysis solutions for life sciences. Its platform provides pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, research institutions, clinical service organizations and pathologists with detailed tissue biomarker readouts from slide images and enables the correlation of this information with other key clinical or genomic information (an approach known as Tissue Phenomics™) to generate new knowledge and support better decisions in research, diagnostics and therapy.
Definiens’ vision is to open new fields of research, to contribute to development of personalized medicine, and to significantly improve the quality of patients’ lives. Definiens is headquartered in Munich, Germany and has its North American headquarters in Carlsbad, CA. Further information is available at www.definiens.com.
About Gilde Healthcare
Gilde Healthcare (Utrecht, The Netherlands and Cambridge, Massachusetts) is the leading transatlantic growth capital investor focused on private healthcare companies. It has over €450 million ($600 million) under management and is actively looking to lead new investments in therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and healthcare services. For a list of Gilde’s portfolio companies please visit our new website at www.gildehealthcare.com.