Porto-based startup for personalised diagnosis and treatment of illnesses has 5 million euros to duplicate its team
Considered one of the 150 most promising startups in the world in the area of digital health, iLof - Intelligent on Fiber continues to grow. Responsible for developing an intelligent platform for diagnosis and personalised treatment of oncological diseases, it has now received five million dollars (around 4.9 million euros) in funding that will allow it to double its team.
The company explains in a statement that the capital will allow it to "accelerate current commitments with some of the leading global companies in the pharmaceutical, biotech space", and thus "accelerate pilots" and "expedite platform development".
To develop "effective therapies for millions of patients around the world", iLof will need to hire 20 more people by 2023 and is looking for profiles in physics, data science, biology and product management.
This funding round was led by Portuguese Faber and also included participation from Microsoft's M12 fund, Quiet Capital, Lunar Ventures, Alter Venture Partners, re.Mind Capital and Fluxunit, as well as investors Charlie Songhurst and Nicol.as Berggruen.
The purpose of iLoF is to create a device that, by managing large amounts of data, helps choose the most suitable medication for each patient. After the positive results with Alzheimer's patients, iLoF's solution shone the light on cases of strokes and cancer patients.
During the pandemic, the company put the technology at the service of São João Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto in managing the flow of covid-19 patients, allowing resources to be optimised.
iLof looks to the future of the platform as an aid in the "understanding of diseases" and in helping to "detect some of the world's most serious and deadly diseases, such as ovarian cancer, or Alzheimer's disease".
Just last year, the Porto startup was part of the batch of five European innovations in the health sector to follow, according to the EIT Health network, one of the largest public-private partnerships in Europe in the field of innovation in health, with about 150 partners, which has accelerated more than 120 startups in emerging European regions.
So far, iLof has raised $8 million (about €7.9 million) in funding rounds.