Milwaukee, January 09, 2020 – PROMISS® Diagnostics, Inc. closed a $400,000 seed round funding led by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) with additional investments from Northwestern Mutual’s Cream City Venture Capital. The funds will be used to develop the company’s first product – an ovarian cancer diagnostic test for early ovarian cancer detection.
PROMISS Diagnostics is a venture stage biotechnology company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that develops bio-analytical solutions to assist physicians in improving women’s health outcomes. Its first-generation multi-analyte blood test is an innovative tool that distinguishes malignant from benign ovarian masses – named PROMISS (Predicting Risk of Ovarian Malignancy In Serum Samples).
Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecologic cancer, and takes the lives of more than 15,000 women each year in the United States. This is because the majority of cases are diagnosed at late stages where the five-year survival rate of stage 4 is only 17%. The survival rate increases to 92% when cancer is diagnosed at an early stage. “PROMISS Diagnostics seeks to radically transform this paradigm with its innovative technology,” said Jalal Sulaiman, PROMISS Diagnostics President and CEO.
PROMISS is a proprietary machine learning algorithm that uses common serum biomarkers and patient data to diagnose ovarian cancer in women with a pelvic mass. The algorithm inputs are readily available, rendering it a potentially low-cost, highly accurate, point-of-care diagnostic tool that can be widely-accessible and especially useful in low resource areas such as rural America, where ovarian cancer mortality is the highest. “We are passionate about improving patient outcomes by developing innovative tools that are efficacious, inexpensive and accessible,” said Sulaiman.
This investment round will enable PROMISS Diagnostics to continue developing and optimizing the PROMISS technology as a predictive ovarian cancer diagnostic tool. “This funding will allow us to make big strides in developing the PROMISS test and move us closer to the market where it will significantly improve cancer diagnosis,” Sulaiman noted. “We are very excited that WARF and Northwestern Mutual, joined our journey and are supporting our efforts to make a difference in ovarian cancer survival.”
“Ovarian cancer is truly devastating. The world needs better tools which help physicians connect patients with the best possible care to cure their disease. WARF Ventures is delighted to partner with PROMISS Diagnostics, Inc. This is an example of a startup based on a University of Wisconsin-Madison technology that has great leadership, a detailed and achievable development plan, and a clear product-market fit. In partnership, we look forward to advancing this important diagnostic tool that assuredly will benefit people worldwide,” said Michael Partsch, Chief Venture Officer.
“Cream City Venture Capital is excited to be partnering with Jalal and his team to build a great medical diagnostics company in Milwaukee. PROMISS is developing technology that has the potential to impact many people’s lives in the future through early detection of ovarian cancer,” said Craig Schedler, Venture Partner at Northwestern Mutual.
PROMISS Diagnostics is a biotechnology company established in November, 2017 with the sole purpose of bringing to the market innovative and globally accessible tools for detecting cancer at early stages. Our current focus is to bring to the market a diagnostic tool to improve ovarian cancer (OC) outcomes through early diagnosis and prevention. The first diagnostic test is PROMISS (Predicting Risk of Ovarian Malignancy In Serum Samples). Currently undergoing clinical validation in multi-center clinical studies. PROMISS test will enable clinicians to distinguish benign from malignant masses in women presenting with adnexal mass. The company is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
For more information, please visit http://www.promissdx.com
WARF invests in the university by partnering with UW–Madison to steward the cycle of research, discovery, commercialization and investment.
Founded in 1925 by visionary alumni, WARF is among the oldest and most successful technology transfer offices in the nation. As the designated patent and licensing organization for UW–Madison, WARF advances transformative discoveries to the marketplace to benefit humankind across Wisconsin and the world.
Today, WARF manages a substantial investment portfolio built from decades of licensing and investment revenues. Through prudent stewardship WARF is able to provide an annual grant of tens of millions of dollars to the university to fuel an evergreen cycle of innovation. These gifts are used to recruit and retain faculty, support student fellowships, build new facilities and advance the Wisconsin Idea.
The WARF Ventures fund primarily invests in companies founded to commercialize University of Wisconsin-Madison technologies. These companies bring both strategic market focus and exceptional leadership to their partnership with WARF Ventures.
For more information, please visit: www.warf.org
Cream City VC partners with companies that leverage technology to address problems in large markets. While we do not have a specific industry focus, we look to partner with founding teams based in Southeastern Wisconsin who have a deep point of view on the problem they are solving. We seek investments at the seed and Series A stages working alongside other local and regional investors.
For more information, please visit: innovation.northwesternmutual.com