Israel-based Nevia Bio has raised $3.1M in seed funding to accelerate its mission to revolutionize the early detection of diseases affecting women. The startup, which has rebranded from its former name Gina Life, specializes in developing machine learning algorithms capable of identifying early indicators of women’s health issues, such as ovarian cancer.
The latest funding round saw participation from MindUP Digital Health Incubator, Pitango HealthTech, Alive Israel HealthTech Fund, and Technion investment arms, among other existing investors. This comes after a $1.9M pre-seed Round, bringing Nevia Bio’s total funding to date to $5M. The new capital infusion will primarily be used to support the company’s ongoing clinical trials focused on ovarian cancer. Additionally, the funding will assist in expanding Nevia Bio’s pipeline for other women’s health indications and bolstering the firm’s data science capabilities.
Ovarian cancer often goes undetected until it reaches an advanced stage, resulting in high mortality rates and costly treatment. Current diagnostic methods, including ultrasound and blood tests, have proven to be inadequate in detecting the disease at early stages. Nevia Bio aims to change this narrative by employing machine learning to analyze vaginal secretions. This innovative approach focuses on identifying specific biomarker signatures that can detect ovarian cancer at both early and late stages, potentially saving lives and reducing healthcare costs.
Since its inception in 2020, Nevia Bio has made significant progress by establishing a comprehensive biobank containing over 900 samples of vaginal secretions. This collection, gathered from a diverse range of women and conditions, is linked to a digital database. The wealth of data allows the company to apply machine learning techniques to uncover unique features that can be used for early diagnosis and possibly even disease management.
“This is an important milestone for Nevia, and we are thrilled to announce this funding, which will support our mission of bringing innovative solutions into the women’s health growing market. Our investors joining these efforts show a growing interest in our sector and we are excited to pursue our continued clinical development. I thank the Nevia talented team for their high professionality, great teamwork and dedication. We are all engaged in bringing novel solutions to saving the lives of many women” said Dr. Inbal Zafir-Lavie, CEO and co-founder.
Hila Karah, Managing Partner at Pitagno HealthTech: “I’m excited to add Nevia to Pitango HealthTech portfolio. Neiva, a promising clinical stage development company, has a unique approach to the detection of early stage Ovarian Cancer, the devastating “silent killer”, as well as other women’s diseases. I believe that the excellent team, led by professional women, coupled with advanced science of proteomic and AI will bring a non invasive, easily applied tool to the diagnosis of many unmet women’s health issues.
