Vine Health has raised a 拢1.2 million seed round to help cancer patients manage the treatment process聽and their lifestyle around the disease.
London-based Vine was founded by Rayna Patel, a Cambridge-trained doctor and NHS England clinical entrepreneur, and Georgina Kirby, a data scientist and former VP of聽HealthTech start-up Touch Surgery.
The Vine Health app helps patients going through cancer to track and聽understand their medication-taking, symptoms and lifestyle, allowing people to feel more in control of their treatments and聽the corresponding side effects.
The platform also collects large-scale data on how particular drugs affect patients鈥� quality of life, creating evidence for the development of new treatments.
鈥淢any people living with cancer feel isolated and unsupported, and traditional routes of delivering healthcare struggle to address these issues,鈥� said CEO Dr. Patel.
鈥淚t鈥檚 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.
鈥淎t Vine, our goal is to put patients back in control.鈥�
The all-female founding team came through the Entrepreneur First programme, which helps would-be entrepreneurs find a co-founder, develop an idea and start a company.聽It claims to have聽assisted聽more than 1,000聽people in creating companies worth a combined $1.5 billion.
Vine Health’s seed round was led by Playfair Capital with participation from Entrepreneur First, Ascension Ventures and Tiny VC, as well as a number of well-known angel investors including Simon and Michael Blakey and Pam Garside.
The company will use the funds to develop its platform and make key hires at its London-based headquarters.
Chris Smith, managing partner of lead investor Playfair Capital, said: 鈥淩ayna and Georgina are on a mission to revolutionise cancer care for patients across the globe and we鈥檙e thrilled to support them on their journey.
鈥淭his 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.鈥�
Alice Bentinck, co-founder of Entrepreneur First, said: 鈥淲e are incredibly excited to have supported two such talented and driven female founders at such an early stage.
鈥淭his is a highly significant milestone in breaking the glass ceiling for women entrepreneurs.鈥�