Ghanaian startup, Yemaachi Biotech raises $3M, advances cancer research precision globally
Ghanaian Healthtech startup, Yemaachi Biotech, has raised $3 million in a seed funding round to advance cancer research globally. The funding round was led by V8 Capital and had, LifeLine Family Heritage Fund, Y Combinator, Tencent, LoftyInc Capital, VestedWorld, V Square Capital, and Ethan Perlstein as participants.
Yemaachi Biotech is a cancer research diagnostics company that focuses on improving cancer care by studying human genetic diversity. Founded in 2020 by Yaw Bediako, David Hutchful, Joyce Ngoi, and Yaw Attua-Afari, the startup is accelerating precision oncology in Africa and the rest of the world by extending access to research and diagnostics.
Headquartered in Accra and with offices in Washington, DC, the company stands out as a first of its kind for the continent.Yemaachi Biotech is pioneering genomic and clinical knowledge base research, combining it with deep clinical partnerships across Africa.
Yemaachi Biotech also provides a base for innovative products and partnerships to advance new molecular diagnostics and therapeutic targets.
Co-founder and CEO Yaw Bediako said, “We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of genomic data and understanding. We know genetic outcomes are context-dependent, including within the genome. Creating a dataset with the greatest genomic diversity can enable rapid discoveries that have long-term implications for cancer research, drug development, and patient care, not just in Africa but also globally”. Yemaachi has vast expertise in immunogenomics, Bioinformatics, and deep learning, an advantage for oncology research advancement.
Yemaachi Biotech previously participated in the Summer 2021 batch of the Y Combinator accelerator program. It was also a recipient of a $1 million grant as part of the Calestous Juma Science Leadership Fellowship awarded to Yaw Bediako by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The company also launched the AMBER Study in collaboration with Lucence last year to better identify and understand breast cancer genomics in women of African descent using liquid biopsy. This year, it launched its at-home Sheba HPV Test in Ghana to help identify women at high risk of cervical cancer.
“The breadth of expertise of Yemaachi’s highly talented founding team, the clinical partnerships they have already formed, and their focus on leveraging the vast untapped resource of African genetic diversity to discover the next generation of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics makes them a stimulating and valuable investment for us,” said Tobi Oke, Managing Partner at V8 Capital Partners.