This morning British health tech company focused on cancer management Vine Health announced a £1.2 million seed round. This latest funding was led by Playfair Capital.

WHAT THEY DO

Founded by an all-female team including NHS physician Rayna Patel, CEO, and a data scientists Georgina Kirby, CTO, the company’s aim is to help cancer patients manage their condition and symptoms through an app, according to a Medium.com post announcing the funding.  

Patients using the app will be able to track their lifestyle trends, like sleeping habits, diet and exercise. The app is designed to help users track physical symptoms and mental wellbeing. It will also let users organize medication and see how treatments are working and if there are side effects present. Users will have the ability to connect with other patients in the same position as well. 

The AI-enabled system is also able to help users look at trends in their health and send information back to clinicians. 

“Many people living with cancer feel isolated and unsupported, and traditional routes of delivering healthcare struggle to address these issues,” Patel said in the post. “It’s also imperative that we gather the necessary data to understand how cancer therapies affect not just survival, but quality of life, so that patients and doctors can weigh up this information to make informed decisions about their care. At Vine, our goal is to put patients back in control.”

WHAT IT'S FOR

The new cash will be put towards growing the team and developing the platform. According to Vine Health’s webpage, it is currently registering patients for early bird access to the platform.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Oncology-focused platforms have become increasingly popular in the digital health space. Finnish startup Kaiku Health offers digital patient monitoring and patient-reported outcome services, with a focus on oncology. The startup has recently teamed up with Amgen to partner on a digital symptom tracking for multiple myeloma.  

Another company in the space is Precision Health AI, which uses EHR data to provide practical AI applications for real oncology use cases. 

ON THE RECORD 

“Rayna and Georgina are on a mission to revolutionise cancer care for patients across the globe and we’re thrilled to support them on their journey,” Chris Smith, managing partner of Playfair Capita;, said in a statement.“This is exactly the kind of innovative early-stage business Playfair Capital wants to invest in and work hard to help grow and fulfil its huge potential.”