Two Canadian healthtech firms have entered a merger deal to improve access to precision oncology at the community level.
Montréal’s Imagia Cybernetics and Vancouver-based Canexia are combining with a new injection of a $20 million equity investment. The funding includes participation from Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund, Desjardins Capital, and PacBridge Capital.
Operating under one entity, Imagia and Canexia aim to improve accessibility through cost-effective local testing to reduce expenses and generate faster results. The integrated solution uses informatics powered by artificial intelligence for treatment selection, patient monitoring, and provides support to clinical laboratories to bring testing in-house.
Imagia’s technology preserves cancer healthcare data privacy, while Canexia’s solution tests, validates, and delivers the analysis directly to the oncologist.
In addition to working with four pharmaceutical companies, Imagia and Canexia are integrated with 20 hospital systems and reference labs around the world.
Since its inception in 2015, Imagia has been developing digital medical solutions to improve the health of cancer patients and those with other diseases. Its platform enables hospitals, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and diagnostic companies to use healthcare data while retaining privacy.
Canexia (formerly Contextual Genomics) was founded in 2012 to develop genomic-based molecular assays to support oncology, designed to advance treatment selection and disease monitoring.
Sue Paish, Canexia’s board chair, will also chair the amalgamated firm. Paish is also the CEO of the Digital Technology Supercluster, which invested $1.5 million into Canexia’s Project ACTT to deploy less invasive tests as an alternative to surgical tissue biopsies.
Imagia has raised funding for its own projects as well. The Digital Health and Discovery Platform, co-led by the Terry Fox Research Institute and Imagia, was given a $49 million grant from the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
As a result of the consolidation, the new company will be named Imagia Canexia Health and will be led by Imagia CEO Geralyn Ochab. Canexia CEO Michael Ball will be taking on the role as an advisor.
The transaction is expected to close at the end of the month, though the financial terms were not disclosed.
A spokesperson for Imagia Canexia Health told BetaKit that the $20 million will be used to bring new products to market, expand its lab testing footprint across the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions.
Imagia Canexia Health’s headquarters will be in Montréal, as the company looks to maintain its offices in Vancouver and San Diego.