The Berlin-based digital health startup mika, the developer of a digital companion for cancer patients, has closed a funding round in the low 7-digit euros. The capital comes from the venture capital firm Ananda Impact Ventures and VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft.
Founded in 2017, the company’s goal is to accompany individuals with cancer through the challenging time of illness and treatment, and to sustainably improve their quality of life and the outcomes of therapy through digital technology.
The new round of financing coincides with the passing of the German Digital Healthcare Act (DVG), which represents a decisive turning point in the German digital health market. As digital health solutions like mika can now also demonstrate their influence on therapy outcomes in clinical studies, they are increasingly regarded as an important component of care, and are subject to medical device law. The DVG will enable physicians to prescribe these digital therapeutics, and health insurance funds to reimburse their purchase.
Cancer remains one of the world’s greatest challenges for both medicine and society. According to the WHO, 18.1 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2018. In Germany alone, every second individual will suffer from cancer in the course of their life.
To help these people, Dr Gandolf Finke and Dr Jan Simon Raue founded mika in 2017, and developed an app for patients and their relatives in cooperation with the Berlin university hospital Charité and University Hospital Leipzig. mika stands for “Mein interaktiver Krebs-Assistant” (“My Interactive Cancer Assistant”), and accompanies patients through therapy with a specially developed support program that is personalised based on the patient’s situation. Developed together with physicians and psycho-oncologists, the app provides information on diagnoses and treatment options, nutritional advice, relaxation exercises and concrete support for everyday living with cancer. In addition to valuable background information and motivating stories from former patients, users can utilise mika to document their physical and mental wellbeing, complaints and side effects in a patient diary, which they can reference in later discussions with treating physicians. The patient takes centre stage and is actively integrated in the treatment process using digital technology. mika is available in the App Store and the Google Play store.
mika will use the fresh capital to conduct a clinical study and further develop mika. In future, the app will be able to respond to individual patients in an even more personalised manner using artificial intelligence.
mika founder Dr Gandolf Finke stated: “With Ananda Impact Ventures and IBB Bet., we are pleased that we were able to convince two experienced representatives of the venture capital scene of the value of mika. Together, we can improve the lives of millions of people suffering from cancer.”
