Aitiologic has raised €6.4 million in an oversubscribed seed round to advance its preeclampsia risk blood test. The round was co-led by Heal Capital and Ananda Impact Ventures with participation from PUSH VC and LANA Ventures.
The Austria-based precision medicine company is developing Aitios, a tissue-resolved liquid biopsy platform that could detect preeclampsia risk – a leading cause of preventable maternal deaths – in a pregnancy’s first trimester via a blood test. Aitios uses non-invasive prenatal testing and does not require an additional blood draw.
Aitiologic is currently conducting a large-scale validation study of over 1,000 pregnancies in collaboration with the Fetal Medicine Foundation. The company aims to standardize Aitios for preeclampsia risk prediction, with plans to expand the platform beyond preeclampsia if validation is successful.
“Preeclampsia is a compelling first application because the unmet need for early risk prediction is significant and the clinical care pathway already exists. Longer-term, our ambition is much broader: to transform a routine blood draw into a rich source of molecular information about maternal and fetal health, and ultimately to make tissue-specific biology accessible from blood across a much wider range of conditions,” said Aitiologic CEO and Founder Dr. Andreas E. Posch.
The funding comes amid growing investment in maternal health innovation. Fellow startup iPremom recently secured €15 million to develop a blood test for early pregnancy complications, while Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America founder Olivia Walton has committed $100 million to maternal healthcare.
