BERLIN, Oct. 29, 2024 — Vara, a company that uses AI to detect breast cancer early, has announced that it raised $8.9 million USD (€8M EUR) in funding earlier this year. The company welcomed three new investors: Smart Family Office (Austria) and FJH (Germany), both European family offices, as well as IBB Ventures, a Berlin-based healthcare investor.
Since its launch in 2019, Vara has been successful in Germany’s National Breast Cancer Screening Program. Today, nearly 40% of breast cancer screenings in Germany use Vara’s AI platform. It is the only AI system that has been widely implemented in the program.
Key achievements with the program include:
- Over 100,000 images are assessed each month using Vara’s AI
- Cancer detection rates have significantly increased, with Vara finding 50% of cancers that radiologists would have missed
- False positives have been reduced
- Radiologists’ workflow efficiency has been enhanced
Vara is expanding into emerging healthcare markets, including India. The company began working with NM Medical, a leading provider of imaging services in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Pune, in 2023. The collaboration aims to improve preventive care and early breast cancer detection in India, focusing on mammography as a key part of women’s health programs.
Jonas Muff, CEO of Vara, said, “This funding round, which is particularly important in today’s economic climate, not only confirms the value of our technology but also allows us to expand Vara’s reach for global impact. We are very happy with the results we are already seeing with our healthcare partners, and we look forward to sharing more progress soon.”
The financing round was led by IBB Ventures’ impact funds. “By combining an AI-driven screening approach with proven medical evidence and commercialization in emerging markets, Vara is a perfect fit for our impact fund’s goals,” said Ute Mercker, Investment Director at IBB Ventures. “Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. We hope that by introducing this innovative screening method to India, Vara will be able to increase survival rates and improve women’s quality of life.”
In addition to its recent funding, Vara recently published a study, “Strategies for integrating artificial intelligence into mammography screening programmes: a retrospective simulation analysis” with . The study examined the integration of AI into mammography screening using nearly two million datasets from the UK, Sweden, and Germany, and found significant improvements in all key screening parameters, including improved cancer detection rates, reduced recall rates, and reduced workload for radiologists.
For more information about Vara, visit .
About Vara
Vara is a healthcare technology company revolutionizing breast cancer screening with AI. Founded in 2018 by Jonas Muff, CEO, and Stefan Bunk, CTO, Vara is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with offices in India. Vara’s AI-powered software enhances accuracy and efficiency in breast cancer detection, identifying 43% more cancers that radiologists might miss while reducing their workload by up to 73%. Vara’s approach has been published in multiple publications, including Lancet Digital Health, and significantly outperforms average radiologists. Integrated into Germany’s National Breast Cancer Screening Program, Vara supports 40% of the country’s screening centers, benefiting over 80,000 women monthly. Expanding its reach, Vara is now bringing its life-saving technology to underserved populations in India, aiming to improve early detection and patient outcomes globally. Vara is backed by investors including Merantix, EQTFoundation, and VI Partners. For more information, visit .
About IBB Ventures
IBB Ventures (www.ibbventures.de) has been providing venture capital to innovative Berlin-based companies since 1997 and has established itself as the market leader in early-stage financing in Berlin. The funds are primarily used for the development and market launch of innovative products or services as well as for business concepts in the creative industries. In addition to our two VC funds for Berlin-based technology and creative industries startups with a combined volume of EUR 90 million, our impact VC fund with a volume of EUR 30 million has been in the investing stage since 2022. All our funds are backed by Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), administered by the State of Berlin.
IBB Ventures has already invested in more than 260 Berlin-based creative and technology companies; in consortia with partners, the start-ups received more than €1.8 billion, of which IBB Ventures invested more than €275 million as lead, co-lead or co-investor. IBB Ventures is the parent brand for the VC activities of IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft.
CONTACT: Media Contact: Erin Kim for Vara, e@erinheejoon.com Ute Mercker for IBB Ventures, info@ibbventures.de