C2i Genomics raises $12M Series A funding to improve cancer patient lives and outcomes with breakthrough technology

C2i Genomics (“C2i”), a New York City-based biotech startup that offers post-surgery monitoring of cancer recurrence and progression by analyzing subtle changes in the pattern of the tumor’s DNA, today announced it has raised $12 million in its Series A financing to accelerate growth and advance its core technology. The financing was led by Casdin Capital and joined by additional new investors including NFX Capital, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and other investors.

According to a public release, C2i said the new cash infusion will be used to fund the development and clinical validation of C2i Genomics’ personalized, real-time solution for monitoring recurrence and treatment response for various types of solid cancers.

Founded in 2019 by Asaf Zviran, C2i Genomics is headquartered in NYC with an R&D center in Israel. The startup provides cloud-based cancer diagnostic services to pharmaceutical and diagnostic organizations. The company’s ultra-sensitive liquid biopsy assay will allow physicians to monitor patient treatment response and detect treatment failure or disease recurrence months and potentially years earlier than current monitoring methods.

C2i’s liquid biopsy is a tool for cancer tumor monitoring. It works by identifying subtle changes in genetic patterns across the entire tumor. Based on bioinformatics and artificial intelligence, it compares thousands of data points obtained from patients’ periodic liquid biopsy blood tests to their own baseline of sequenced tumor tissue and whole-genome analysis. The unique pattern generated is converted to a cancer burden score, making cancer more predictable and manageable. The company’s ultra-sensitive liquid biopsy assay allows physicians to monitor and improve their patients’ treatment response and detect disease recurrence months and years before current monitoring methods are able to provide results.

Commenting on the funding, Asaf Zviran, C2i Genomics’ co-founder, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, said: “This Series A funding will allow us to take the next major step in our growth and advance our core technology into pilot and pivotal validation studies in several oncology indications.” Zviran added, “We believe that the improvement in sensitivity we’ve achieved will allow physicians to quantitatively monitor their patient treatment response and detect treatment failure or disease recurrence months and even years before they would do otherwise. We have built C2i on a solid scientific and technological foundation and are excited to work with our investors and other partners toward the deployment of our cloud-based platform for disease management. The great support of our clinical collaborators from the US, Europe and Asia highlights the global need that underlines our mission to support effective therapy decisions for millions of cancer patients around the world.”

C2i Genomics’ innovative solution is based on research performed at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) and Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) by Dr. Zviran, along with Dr. Dan Landau, core faculty member at the NYGC and assistant professor of Medicine at WCM, who serves as scientific co-founder and member of C2i’s scientific advisory board. C2i then welcomed Dr. Boris Oklander as chief technology officer, and Ezra Sofer as its general manager and chief financial officer, both of whom bring extensive executive leadership and management expertise and experience from their previous roles in the healthcare industry. The technology has been validated through longitudinal clinical cohorts in collaboration with cancer centers in New York and Boston and was recently published in Nature Medicine. This proof-of-concept research was supported by a 2017 grant from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.

“The C2i technology allows for the company to develop a bio-platform approach that works across cancer types and allows effective guidance of diverse treatment modalities from surgery and chemotherapy to immunotherapy and targeted therapies.” said James Currier, managing partner of NFX Capital. “Such a data-based treatment management platform will produce a network effect, which will increase the value of C2i’s data and services over time. We predict that this is a unique opportunity to build a sector defining company.”