TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genetics software startup PhenoTips® announced today that it has raised CAD $2.5 million in an oversubscribed seed fundraising round led by the GreenSky Accelerator Fund IV. This round includes the support of the Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners, Thin Air Labs, Yorkville Partners, and angel investors including members of the GreenSky President’s Club.
PhenoTips empowers healthcare providers to deliver precision medicine with the most complete and interoperable software solution for medical genetics. PhenoTips’ technology is used by leading genetic care providers in four countries, across four NHS Trusts and two provincial Canadian health systems, currently serving over 200,000 patients with tools that enable deep phenotyping, family history, and genomic analysis. With the additional funds from this seed round, the company plans to double the size of its twelve-person Canada-based team and expand its cloud-based product offerings.
“PhenoTips started eight years ago as an academic research project to help specialists record more standardized patient data at a nearby hospital’s genetics clinic,” said CEO, Dr. Orion Buske. “Today, we help specialists around the world not just record, but also use this information to help diagnose patients and advance genetics research. We are excited to be joined by a stellar group of prominent investors in the Canadian startup ecosystem, with deep expertise in digital health and enterprise software, to help us realize a future in which the responsible use of genetic data makes medicine more personalized and proactive. Their support will accelerate our efforts to empower the healthcare workers at the forefront of precision medicine.”
"Today's financing announcement lays a strong foundation in support of PhenoTips' continued growth in the genomic healthcare market. We've been working diligently to push the field into the digital age, advancing the role of software and AI in medical genetics. This funding supports the future and long term vision of PhenoTips", said COO and VP of Scientific & Medical Affairs, Dr. Pawel Buckowicz.
In the last 20 years, the cost of sequencing a human genome has dropped from $10 million to under $1,000. This drop in cost, combined with the unique life-altering healthcare benefits attributed to sequencing, will see the genetic testing market reach an expected $28 billion by 2027. As the leading software provider for medical genetics, PhenoTips is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this growing market due to the PhenoTips software’s ability to unify genetic infrastructure across multiple disciplines, while providing seamless communication between systems regardless of their make or model.
Said GreenSky Managing Partner, Greg Stewart: “PhenoTips works at the intersection of genetics and precision medicine - two areas that we believe are poised to experience outsized short and long-term growth. With a best-in-class product and a team composed of some of the key opinion leaders in the space, Phenotips is positioned to be a major player in the space.”
First established as a SickKids and University of Toronto joint research project, PhenoTips soon transitioned to clinical use due in part to the software’s intuitive user interface. Last year, the company was one of 21 companies to graduate from the Health stream of the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), a startup accelerator for massively scalable companies. This is the company’s first equity financing, and will help position PhenoTips as the de-facto solution for genetics and genomics providers worldwide as they prepare to scale services to accommodate the integration of genetics into everyday care.
About PhenoTips
PhenoTips is the leading software solution for medical genetics. Founded in 2014 out of a research project at The Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto, PhenoTips’ software addresses the challenges commonly faced in medical genetics with a single solution, while preparing clinics for the proliferation of genetic testing into mainstream healthcare. PhenoTips’ solutions support multiple Canadian provincial health authorities, UK NHS Trusts, individual hospitals in four countries, and genetics industry leaders including Regeneron and Genome Medical. Learn more about PhenoTips at phenotips.com
About GreenSky Capital and the GreenSky President’s Club
GreenSky Capital Inc. is an award-winning Toronto-based firm that makes investments in early-stage Canadian technology companies through its affiliated venture capital funds and through facilitating the GreenSky President’s Club, a FedDev-registered angel group. Our principals bring a combination of experience in technology, entrepreneurship, law and finance to high-growth potential companies and dedicated entrepreneurs. Learn more about GreenSky at greenskycapital.com
