Press Release “Cancilico Raises €2.5M to Scale AI-Powered Bone Marrow Diagnostics”
DRESDEN, Germany – January 20, 2026
Cancilico, an AI diagnostics startup specializing in blood cancer, announced today the successful closing of its €2.5 million Seed financing round. The investment was led by a strong consortium including High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), TGFS – Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, GEDAD GmbH (investment vehicle of Ehninger family), and ROI Verwaltungsgesellschaft (Roland Oetker).
The funding will accelerate Cancilico’s mission to establish its AI-based diagnostic software MyeloAID as a routine tool to improve the standard of care for blood cancer patients worldwide and to accelerate digital biomarker development in hematological malignancies.
MyeloAID aims to become the game-changer in the diagnosis of hematological malignancies by using advanced artificial intelligence to analyze bone marrow samples with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The underlying data model of Cancilico’s AI-diagnosis is based on a large validated data set of various malignancies as well as data from healthy individuals. Partnerships with hematopathology centers further enhance the data model and cooperation with pharma partners show initial results for accelerated development of biomarkers and therapeutic options for hematological malignancies.
Especially in times when we face a shortage of trained hematologists, such supporting technologies are urgently needed to ensure clinical availability and precision medicine. A unique feature of MyeloAID is the design as a platform-independent solution. The technology can be implemented on any standard imaging microscope or scanner, allowing laboratories to upgrade their current diagnostic capabilities without replacing existing hardware infrastructure. Further, the AI-diagnosis is already available and used as a RUO variant via Smart In Media’s PathoZoom® Scan & LiveView Suite.
“We are convinced to invest in a winning team and a superior technology that has already gained commercial traction with its ‘Research Use Only’ data models,” said Dr. Jörg Traub, Principal at HTGF. “The team combines entrepreneurial spirit with deep technical and clinical knowledge. Cancilico has established a convincing AI model using training data that includes not only diseased patient samples but also healthy datasets, allowing for better and faster classification.”
The experienced and multidisciplinary team including CEO Markus Badstübner, CMO Dr. Moritz Middeke, Tim Schmittmann, Sebastian Riechert, Dr. Jan Eckardt, Dr. Karsten Wendt, and Angel Investor Prof. Gerhard Ehninger, operates at the intersection of data science and clinical hematology.
“We are facing a global shortage of hematologists, yet the complexity of diagnostic cases is rising,” said Markus Badstübner, CEO and Co-Founder of Cancilico. “Our goal is to democratize access to expert-level diagnostics. This investment allows us to navigate the FDA and CE-IVDR regulatory landscapes and bring a tool to market that integrates seamlessly with existing lab hardware to improve patient outcomes without heavy capital expenditure.”
“Bone marrow analysis is one of the most complex and time-intensive disciplines in hematology,” added Dr. Moritz Middeke, CMO and Co-Founder. “By training our AI on a diverse range of healthy and pathological datasets, we developed a tool that acts as a highly skilled ‘digital colleague’. This funding is a crucial step toward bringing this technology to the labs, where it will help to make faster, more accurate diagnoses for blood cancer patients.”
About Cancilico
Cancilico is a Dresden-based health-tech startup founded in 2023 as a spin-off of the EKFZ for Digital Health at TUD Dresden University of Technology and University Hospital Dresden. The company develops AI-driven diagnostic solutions for hematology, aimed at automating and improving the accuracy of blood and bone marrow analysis. Its mission is to bring cutting-edge AI technology into routine hematology labs, improving the state of care for blood cancer patients around the world and the development of digital biomarkers in hematology. The founding team includes Markus Badstübner, Dr. Moritz Middeke, Tim Schmittmann, Sebastian Riechert, Dr. Jan Eckardt, Dr. Karsten Wendt, and Angel Investor Prof. Gerhard Ehninger.
Cancilico is deeply embedded in the Saxon life science ecosystem, engaging with the regional biotech network Biosaxony, and strongly contributing to the SaxoCell and SEMECO Clusters4Future initiatives. Within these clusters, startups such as Cancilico can further develop their strong founding dynamics and combine them with rapid translational pathways.
Cancilico Team, Dresden 2026 (Foto Cancilico)
About High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF)
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros.
Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.
For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.
About TGFS – Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen
TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen provides technology-oriented founders with equity capital for the seed and start-up phases. The fund was first launched in 2008 by the Free State of Saxony (including ERDF funds) and Saxon financial institutions and has since supported over 100 start-ups. In 2023, TGFS launched its third fund generation. TGFS focuses on young, innovative, technology-oriented companies in the ICT, semiconductor and microsystems technology, medical technology, life sciences, environmental and energy technology, and new media sectors that are based or have operations in Saxony.
For more information, please visit TGFS.de or follow us on LinkedIn.
About ROI Verwaltungsgesellschaft
Holding Gesellschaft of Roland Oetker.
About GEDAD GmbH
The investment vehicle of Ehninger family.
Media contact
Cancilico GmbH
Markus Badstübner, CEO & Dr. Moritz Middeke, CMO
contact@cancilico.com
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121
t.jacob@htgf.de
