GHANA – Yemaachi Biotech, a cancer research and diagnostics firm with headquarters in Washington, DC, has secured a US$3 million seed round to further its goal of worldwide accuracy oncology diversification.
The latest seed funding round was led by V8 Capital with participation from LifeLine Family Heritage Fund, Y Combinator, Tencent, LoftyInc Capital, VestedWorld, V Square Capital, and Ethan Perlstein.
Founded in 2020 by Yaw Bediako, David Hutchful, Joyce Ngoi, and Yaw Attua-Afari, Yemaachi aims to enhance precision oncology across Africa and beyond by increasing access to research and diagnostics.
Yemaachi is a first-of-its-kind pan-African genomic and clinical expertise and experience and research platform, as well as broad clinical contacts across Africa.
It paves the way for ground-breaking products and partnerships focused on developing new molecular diagnostics and therapeutic targets.
The firm gives clinical testing services suited to the needs of indigenous people, such as NGS-based screening and diagnostic testing.
The Company’s vast datasets, when combined with Yemaachi’s capabilities in immunogenomics, bioinformatics, and deep learning, can be a critical enabler for fast speeding discoveries in cancer.
As a component of the Calestous Juma Science Leadership Fellowship granted to Bediako, Yemaachi was currently chosen as a recipient of a US$1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
For genetic scientists around the world, Africa is a gold mine. The rationale for this is that African genomes have tremendous genetic variety, with enormous research possibilities.
In genetic and oncology research, Africa is traditionally not well presented. Despite the fact that Africa has 17 percent of the world’s population, just 2% of genetic study participants are of African origin.
Africa’s quickly growing, treatment-naive population, large disease burden, and highest human genetic variety of any continent make it a perfect setting for gaining new insights and better health outcomes.
This is fast changing, owing to businesses like Yemaachi, which are altering the face of African healthcare and disease control through their skills and knowledge, as well as the use of technology.
As we approach the modern age, it is becoming evident that these fields of sciences are approaching the most fascinating period of their evolution.
Through innovative diagnostics and strategic alliances, the organization has already made substantial progress.
Late this year, Yemaachi and Lucence launched the AMBER Study, which aims to accurately understand and explain the genetics of breast cancer in African-American women using liquid biopsy.
In January, the brand opened its at-home Sheba HPV Test in Ghana to help identify women at higher risk of cervical cancer, which is the second most common malignancy in West African women.
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