German AI platform raises €4.5m to transform breast cancer screening

The Berlin-based software company Vara has raised €4.5m in funding to advance breast cancer screening using AI.

Vara is the developer of an AI breast cancer screening platform created by screening radiologists to mitigate human subjectivity associated with reading mammography results and reduce “repetitive” work screening physicians are often subjected to.

Each mammogram is analysed by AI and classified into one of three categories – normal, no classification or safety net – and helps radiologists focus on potentially suspicious exams.

The recent funding round, led by VI Partners with participation from EQT Foundation, Med 360, AI Venture Studio and Merantix, will take the total Series A funding raised to €11m.

Vara intends to use the financing to complete its clinical study analysing AI and workflow software in breast cancer screening, with an expected recruitment of 400,000 screening-age women.

“We are bringing our deep-tech AI breast cancer screening platform to millions of women who currently do not have access to screening in their countries,” said Jonas Muff, Vara’s founder and CEO.

“We are excited to share that we’ve extended our current funding round by an additional €4.5m, reaching an €11m Series A.”

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over two million women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, leading to around 685,000 deaths.

The German company says that more than 80,000 mammography examinations per month are assessed through its platform while 30 per cent of all screening centres in Germany currently work with Vara.

Through this integration, the developers say the system has access to more than 10 years of clinical and pathological follow-up data from more than nine million mammograms.

Vara has five screening centres across Mexico in partnership with Mamotest, a digital breast cancer screening provider and has also partnered with MITERA, the largest private hospital in Greece.

The company aims to provide one billion women with access to better screening worldwide, focusing on underfunded areas and breast cancer early detection.