Cambridge Spinout CardiaTec Raises $6.5M for AI Heart Disease Drug Discovery
CardiaTec leverages AI and a massive human heart tissue dataset to find new cardiovascular disease treatments. The Cambridge University spinout secures $6.5 million in seed funding to combat the world's leading cause of death.
Cambridge University spinout CardiaTec raises $6.5 million in seed funding to accelerate its AI-driven drug discovery efforts targeting cardiovascular disease. With heart disease claiming 17.9 million lives globally each year, the company applies machine learning to analyze vast amounts of biological data and predict how chemical compounds interact with the human body.
The startup builds what it calls the largest human heart tissue-multi-omics dataset by partnering with 65 hospitals across the U.K. and the U.S. By collecting and decoding this broad spectrum of molecular biology data, CardiaTec aims to solve the core problem of the pharmaceutical industry where 90% of potential drug candidates fail during development.
Founded in 2021 by biotech graduates Raphael Peralta and Thelma Zablocki, the company benefits from the deep computational biology expertise of co-founder and CTO Namshik Han. Han serves as a lecturer in AI drug discovery at Cambridge and heads AI at the Milner Therapeutics Institute, giving the team a strong foundation to translate academic research into real-world cardiovascular treatments.