The company’s software, which improves the accuracy and efficiency of breast cancer detection, is used widely in Germany and is also being trialled in India. Vara is backed by European family offices and other investors.
Vara, a Berlin-based company that uses AI to improve breast cancer screening, said it had raised $8.9m (€8.2m) to fund its expansion in Europe and India.
Lead investors for the fundraising include two European family offices – Austrian-based Smart Family Office and German-based FJH. Also investing is IBB Ventures, which provides funding for local businesses on behalf of the State of Berlin, with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund.
Vara’s AI-powered software is designed to improve the accuracy and efficiency in breast cancer detection. The company said using the software leads to increased cancer detection rates, including detection of around half of cancers captured on breast scans but missed by the radiologists, as well as reducing the number of false positives. Using the software is also estimated to cut radiologists’ workload by up to 73%.
Over 100,000 images are assessed per month using Vara’s AI and nearly 40% of breast cancer screening in Germany is now managed on its platform, according to the company, which has been deploying the technology in the German National Breast Cancer Screening Programme since 2019.
“This raise, which is particularly significant in today’s economic climate, not only validates our technology but enables us to accelerate Vara’s expansion for global impact,” the firm’s CEO Jonas Muff said.
Indian partnership
That includes an ambition to take the technology into emerging markets, where its ability to reduce the workload in regions with few trained personnel is seen as a benefit. To this end, Vara formed a partnership in India in 2023 with NM Medical, a company providing imaging services in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Pune.
Vara said the collaboration aimed to “elevate the standard of preventive care and early breast cancer detection in India, with a focus on mammography as a cornerstone of women’s health programs”
As part of a research project to provide an evidence base for using mammography and AI in India, women will be guided by community health workers and front line primary care staff for screening by expert radiologists using Vara’s AI platform. The funding will support further research and Vara’s efforts to tailor the platform for India.
Advances like this are helping to revolutionise the fight against breast cancer, especially in poorer communities around the world, where more portable and affordable equipment, digital solutions and telemedicine are making breast cancer screening and accurate diagnosis available to more women.
As Impact Investor reported in July, such technological breakthroughs are making the World Health Organization’s goal, set in 2021, of reducing breast cancer deaths by 2.5% per year over a 20-year period – saving 2.5 million lives – look plausible.
Impact goals
Ute Mercker, investment director at IBB Ventures, said that Vara’s activities fitted well with the goals of its impact fund by combining an AI-driven screening approach with proven medical evidence and commercialisation in emerging markets.
“Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. We hope that by bringing this innovative screening to market in India, Vara will be able to increase survival rates and improve the quality of life of women,” she said.
Vara has also just published a study on the use of AI in breast screening in The Lancet Digital Health, jointly authored with researchers from the Department of Radiology at University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine and the Department of Radiology at The Royal London Hospital.
The study looked at the integration of AI into mammography screening using almost two million datasets from the UK, Sweden, and Germany, and found significant improvements in all key screening parameters including improvement in cancer detection rates, reduction in recall rates, and workload reductions for radiologists, Vara said.
Vara is backed by investors including AI firm Merantix, the US-based EQT Foundation and Swiss-based venture capital firm VI Partners.Muff said the company was extremely pleased with the outcomes it was already seeing with its partners in healthcare, and that he looked forward to sharing more news on progress soon.
