Ancora completes pre-seed round

Patient recruitment failure is one of the reasons about 15- 20 percent of all clinical trials fail, as explained to Forbes by Danielle Ralic, CEO and CTO of Ancora.ai, a Zurich based startup aiming to solve this problem and help bring treatments to market faster. Ancora.ai is an AI-powered platform that matches patients with suitable clinical studies.

It serves as a search tool that allows patients to look for relevant clinical trials in an easily searchable, personally tailored way. With additional resources, aspiring candidates have the opportunity to learn more about and apply for their desired clinical trials and treatments. On the other hand, scientists in pharma organisations and hospitals use the platform to access candidates to recruit, which accelerates their clinical developments.

Founded in 2020 by Ralic with two cofounders Luca Jahreiss and Emily Jordan, Ancora.ai was born following the rebranding of Intrepida LLC, a health tech company focusing on creating deep-learning models for understanding patients and their medical conditions and treatments. Ancora has already reached over 8500 patients in 100 countries and serves five paying clients in Switzerland and worldwide.

In the coming year, the startup and its 10-member team plan to work with oncologists and research nurses to demonstrate the value of technology in bringing trials into the treatment process.

The startup has now completed a pre-seed round led by US and Europe based early-stage investors. The undisclosed investment will enable the startup to expand the team, enhance and extend the product, and enrich its expertise and network through close engagement with strategically relevant investors.

(RAN)
photo L-R: Emily Jordan, Luca Jahreiss and Daniella Ralic