Accenture has made a strategic investment in California-based Earli through its venture capital arm Accenture Ventures to advance technologies for early cancer detection.
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Earli is a biotechnology company that has created an early cancer detection method using a synthetic targeting platform. It selectively reprograms cancer cells to expose and eliminate themselves.
Accenture’s investment will help Earli to expand collaborations with health and pharmaceutical companies for the adoption of its technology to improve the speed and precision of cancer detection and treatment.
The biotechnology company aims to advance cancer treatment by accurately differentiating between healthy and cancerous cells. Its approach involves programmable genetic constructs that detect and signal active cancer cells early on.
The synthetic biopsy method improves both the sensitivity and specificity of cancer detection. This enables earlier diagnosis and facilitates the development of personalised treatments at reduced costs.
Earli’s technology can identify and locate various types of cancer through non-invasive screening methods, such as blood samples and positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
It can also detect tumours that existing methods might miss due to their small size.
Earli co-founder and CEO Cyriac Roeding said: “Accenture’s impressive network of biopharma clients will be very impactful for Earli.
“It is fantastic to have Accenture support our mission to make cancer a benign experience.”
Earli is the newest addition to Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, a programme designed to engage with and invest in companies developing or applying new technologies.
Project Spotlight provides startups with access to the industry expertise of Accenture and enterprise clients, aiding them in maximising their technological potential.
Other biotechnology companies that have joined Project Spotlight include Turbine, QuantHealth, Virtonomy, and Ocean Genomics.
Accenture Ventures global lead Tom Lounibos said: “Earli’s technology is built on decades of biological data that analyses multiple factors and identifies specific proteins that cause cancer development, increasing the effectiveness and reliability of the synthetic biopsy process.
“With Earli joining our Project Spotlight programme, we can collaborate with our clients in the biopharma industry to advance their capabilities in cancer research, drug development and patient care.”
