Insider Brief
- Vara, an AI-powered breast cancer detection platform, raised $8.9 million USD led by new investors Smart Family Office, FJH, and IBB Ventures, to further expand its platform globally, particularly into emerging markets like India.
- Currently used in nearly 40% of Germany’s National Breast Cancer Screening Program, Vara’s AI enhances cancer detection rates and workflow efficiency, assessing over 100,000 images monthly and identifying 50% more cancers than radiologists alone.
- Vara is collaborating with Indian imaging provider NM Medical to improve early breast cancer detection and has published research with The Lancet Digital Health confirming significant gains in screening accuracy and efficiency through AI integration.
PRESS RELEASE — Vara, the pioneering AI-enabled early breast cancer detection platform, today announced the successful funding raise of $8.9 million USD (€8M EUR), which took place earlier this year. This raise welcomes three new lead investors: European family offices Smart Family Office (Austria) and FJH (Germany), as well as Berlin-based healthcare investor IBB Ventures.
Since its initial deployment in 2019, Vara has demonstrated remarkable success within the German National Breast Cancer Screening Program. Today, nearly 40% of breast cancer screening in Germany is managed on Vara’s AI platform, the only AI system deployed at scale in the program.
Key achievements with the program include:
- Over 100,000 images assessed per month using Vara’s AI
- Significantly increased cancer detection rates, including finding 50% of the cancers that radiologists otherwise would have missed
- Reduced false positives
- Enhanced workflow efficiency for radiologists
Vara is furthering its expansion into emerging healthcare markets, including India. The company began a partnership with NM Medical, a leading provider of imaging services in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Pune, in 2023. The collaboration aims 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.
Jonas Muff, CEO of Vara, stated, “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. We’re extremely pleased with the outcomes we’re already seeing with our partners in healthcare, and we look forward to sharing more progress soon.”
The financing round was co-led by the impact funds of IBB Ventures. “By combining an AI-driven screening approach with proven medical evidence and commercialization in emerging markets, Vara is an excellent fit for the goals of our impact fund,” said Ute Mercker, Investment Director at IBB Ventures. “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.”
In addition to its latest funding, Vara recently published a study, “Strategies for integrating artificial intelligence into mammography screening programmes: a retrospective simulation analysis” with The Lancet Digital Health. The study evaluated 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 improvement in cancer detection rates, reduction in recall rates, and workload reductions for radiologists.
For more information about Vara, visit https://vara.ai.
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. 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%. With multiple publications, including Lancet Digital Health, Vara’s approach 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 https://vara.ai/.
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.
