Raremark, the leading patient-data platform in rare disease, has raised £3m in funding from investors, led by AlbionVC and Ananda Ventures, with participation from Oltre Venture and from existing major investor the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund.

The funding will be used to develop Raremark’s patient-engagement and data-analysis technology, helping biopharmaceutical companies to identify, engage and learn from patients, accelerating the development of new treatments.

Raremark’s platform is the foundation for building research networks of rare disease patients and their families. Raremark provides biopharmaceutical companies with access to anonymized and aggregated patient data, helping to reduce the time and cost of clinical development.

The Raremark platform engages and retains patients, leveraging machine-learning technologies in novel ways. The approach is designed to raise health literacy and informed participation in medical research, to improve the quality of existing therapies and to find new ones.

Julie Walters, CEO and founder of Raremark, said: “Healthcare is becoming increasingly personalized, and precision medicine is enabling the right treatments to be delivered to the right patients. However, accessing credible and structured, real-world patient data remains one of the most acute challenges facing drug development in rare disease.”

Lennart Hergel, Partner at Ananda Ventures, explained Raremark’s approach to addressing challenges in drug development: “Raremark has built a technology platform using content algorithms to boost engagement and advanced data analytics to understand the mechanisms, symptoms and heterogeneity of rare diseases. The resulting high-quality insights will enable companies to develop more effective treatments that are tailored to patients’ profiles.”

Dr Christoph Ruedig, Partner at AlbionVC, said: “The low prevalence of rare diseases throws up some unique challenges. The paucity of clinical experience and data leads to poor trial design, making it more difficult to demonstrate an acceptable efficacy and safety profile for a drug, delaying or even preventing it from reaching the market.”

Commenting on the value proposition to the biopharmaceutical industry, Helen Reynolds, Investment Director at the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, said: “Raremark gets to the root of the problems familiar to all pharmaceutical companies, by boosting the quality of trials and improving drug development with data-driven intelligence. We are very excited about the company’s potential to transform rare disease treatments.”

About rare diseases

Rare diseases, defined as conditions with a prevalence below 5 per 10,000 people in Europe, and fewer than 200,000 people in total in the US, are hard for doctors to spot, with an average time to diagnosis of around seven years. There are more than 7,000 known rare diseases, affecting 350 million patients globally; a large and untapped data source that can be harnessed to transform drug development.

About Raremark

Raremark’s platform is the foundation for building research networks of rare disease patients and their families. Raremark provides biopharmaceutical companies with access to anonymized and aggregated patient data, helping to reduce the time and cost of clinical development, while aiding discoveries which could lead to new treatments. Raremark’s purpose is to create a future in which rare medical conditions are as recognized as the common.

The Raremark platform engages and retains patients, leveraging machine-learning technologies in novel ways. The approach is designed to raise health literacy and informed participation in medical research, to improve the quality of existing therapies and to find new ones. Raremark is headquartered in London, UK with an office in Boston, US. Visit: www.raremark.com

About AlbionVC

AlbionVC is the technology investment arm of Albion Capital Group LLP. The technology team invests from seed through to Series B in high growth companies, predominantly in the UK, with a particular focus on B2B software and technology enabled services. Albion has 20+ years’ experience investing in technology, has c.£450m FUM in technology companies and over 40 tech investments within its portfolios. Visit: www.albion.vc

About Ananda Ventures

Ananda Ventures is one of the leading venture capital investors for impact enterprises in Europe. Impact enterprises solve social challenges in sustainable, market-driven ways – tackling issues such as education, sustainable consumption, the ageing population and health. Ananda shares entrepreneurs’ passion for building outstanding companies in a professional, dynamic way. Visit: www.ananda.vc

About the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund

The Cass Entrepreneurship Fund is a £10m venture capital fund, based at Cass Business School. The Fund makes commercial equity investments into high-potential, revenue-generating businesses. The Cass Entrepreneurship Fund was set up with the generous support of Peter Cullum, CBE, an alumnus of Cass, as part of a wider vision to improve practical business support and entrepreneurial skill-building within Cass Business School and across the early-stage growth-business community. Visit: www.cassentrepreneurship.fund

About Oltre Venture

Oltre Venture uses the venture capital operating model, channelling economic resources towards the most innovative and efficient projects, and offering managerial and financial skills to entrepreneurs. Oltre invests in companies in social sectors, with a specific focus on healthcare, education, social housing, customer-oriented and social services, job placement and economic development of depressed geographic areas. The purpose of the companies in which Oltre invests is to develop new and better solutions to social and collective needs, with the aim of creating added value for customers and the entire community, other than for their shareholders. Visit: www.oltreventure.com