While personalised cancer care is constantly evolving, the treatment selection process for several cancer types continues to be based on basic tumour staging, with few diagnostic tests available to match patients to the best therapies specifically for their disease. As a result, patients often receive generic treatments that may be ineffective in fighting the cancer, or may lead to severe and life-limiting side effects.
The MultivisionDx scientific team developed a computer vision biomarker discovery platform, and used it to discover novel spatial cancer signatures that outperform currently used diagnostic criteria in predicting how patients will respond to standard therapy. The proof-of-concept study in 650 cancer patients was published in the prestigious journal Cell, and won the Minerva Medix prize for the top biomedical research study in Finland.
“This investment enables us to move from scientific discovery to clinical impact,” says Michael Wittinger, CEO of MultivisionDx. “Our mission is to turn complex biology into actionable diagnostics that guide treatment decisions. With this investment, we will advance our first products into validation. Over the next 18 months, our goal is to demonstrate that spatial biology can move from research to routine diagnostics - and fundamentally improve how cancer therapy decisions are made.”
Antti Törmänen, Partner at Antler, comments, “It is rare to find a founding team that combines world-class clinical and scientific expertise with the grit and ambition of world-class founders. MultivisionDx has developed a technology that has the potential to completely transform the way cancer is treated around the world and significantly improve patient outcomes in the process. We are delighted to have backed MultivisionDx from inception and have every confidence in their future success.”
The investment will be used to accelerate the development of MultivisionDx proprietary diagnostic tests, and will enable the completion of key validation studies, formalizing strategic partnerships with international stakeholders, and raising additional public funding.
MultivisionDx was founded on the ambition to bring a ground-breaking biological discovery into clinical practice. The technology was developed in the lab of Sara Wickström at the University of Helsinki, and the founders quickly realized that the predictive potential of their biomarker discovery platform could transform therapeutic decision-making in the clinic. They secured €680,000 in Research to Business funding from Business Finland to prepare the technology for commercialization in 2022, and founded the company in April 2025.
The international founding team includes renowned scientific and clinical leaders. Michael Wittinger, CEO, has extensive experience scaling high-growth companies in oncology, diagnostics and regulated healthcare. Karolina Punovuori, Chief Scientific Officer, is an award-winning cancer researcher and scientific communicator who thrives on translating complex science into clinical impact.
Fabien Bertillot, Head of Computational Biology, brings expertise in computational biology and cancer research to build the algorithms in MultivisionDx’s core platform. János Lengyel is Head of Engineering with a strong background in software development, while Sara Wickström, Science Advisor, is the current Director of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and group leader at University of Helsinki, and advises the company on scientific matters. At MultivisionDx, the team’s mission is to turn biological complexity into life-saving clarity in cancer care.
About the investors:
Antler is where founders come to go further, faster. Antler is the world’s most active early-stage investor, backing exceptional people at the very start of their journey, and supporting them from inception to scale. Across 30 cities worldwide, including New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Bangalore, Singapore, Seoul, and Sydney, the firm helps founders remove the barriers to building by connecting them with world-class peers, validating business models, and providing initial capital. To date, Antler has backed more than 1,500 startups globally, including Airalo, Peec.AI, Reebelo, Wrtn, and Benjamin.
Helsinki University Funds is the internal venture fund supporting the commercialisation of technologies developed at the University of Helsinki. It is the leading Finnish endowment investing in Finnish science-based startups and manages more than 30 venture investments.
Kaikarhenni is a Finnish family office empowering healthcare and sustainability ventures to shape a better future. It is founded by Dr Leena Niemistö, former CEO of Dextra Oy, which was acquired by Pihlajalinna Oy. Her investment philosophy is driven by her passion for improving health outcomes, reducing healthcare costs, and fostering environmentally sustainable solutions.