Monsana secures pre-seed funding from Seeder Fund, LRM, and private investors
- Monsana Team
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
Many patients struggle to find ongoing clinical trials where new medicines are being tested. As a result, they miss out on potentially beneficial, innovative, and sometimes even life-saving treatments. At the same time, recruiting patients for clinical trials remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in developing new medicines. Monsana now offers a solution with its AI-powered patient matching tool. To further develop this tool, the start-up has completed a €500,000 funding round with Seeder Fund, LRM, and private investors.
In June 2024, Dr. Valerie Vandeweerd (CEO) and Simeon Devos (CTO) founded the healthtech start-up Monsana. As a former gynaecologist and expert in clinical trials at Johnson & Johnson, Valerie had firsthand experience of how difficult it was to match patients with the right trials. The problem became painfully clear when a close family member needed access to an experimental treatment. “It was a crucial moment where all pain points came together: as a doctor, from the pharmaceutical world, and as a family member of a patient, we experienced how complex and cumbersome the matchmaking between patients and suitable clinical trials can be,” she recalls.
AI assistant for patient recruitment
This experience convinced Valerie and Simeon to combine their expertise and develop an AI assistant for patient recruitment. While Valerie brings strong medical expertise, Simeon has extensive experience in data science. Simeon explains: “Until now, most screening has been done manually. There are not enough staff for this, and costs for hospitals are high. Our AI assistant offers a solution that is both efficient and cost-saving.”
Correctly interpreting complex eligibility criteria with AI
“The biggest challenge in automation is that medical data is rarely simple,” Simeon explains. “A patient’s condition and history are often described in long, nuanced notes, full of context that doesn’t fit neatly into checkboxes.” Through interviews and a series of experiments, the Monsana team discovered that complex eligibility criteria often lead to important details being overlooked when using traditional selection methods. Rather than asking doctors to adapt, Monsana decided to design a software platform that can correctly interpret the nuanced reality and doctors’ notes using AI. At the same time, our tool can clearly interpret the precise details needed for clinical trial screening.
The effectiveness of Monsana’s tool has already been visible in Belgian hospitals. Valerie says: “Thanks to our tool, more than twice as many potential trial candidates were identified and in a fraction of the usual time.” The tool has a significant positive impact on three levels. First, it increases efficiency for doctors and nurses, who often have little or no time to screen whether studies exist for which a patient might be eligible. Second, patients themselves gain better and easier access to trials. Finally, pharmaceutical companies can recruit suitable patients faster thanks to the app.
To further develop the tool, Monsana has now secured €500,000 in funding from Seeder Fund, LRM, and private investors. With this financing, Monsana will continue its hands-on approach and work directly with pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations, and clinical trial coordinators in hospitals, emphasizing the essential but often overlooked work of building trust in medical AI.
Dries Bauters, investment manager at LRM, is also enthusiastic about the innovative tool: “Monsana offers enormous efficiency gains in clinical trials, benefiting patients, hospitals, and pharma alike. There is also a clear economic and societal return. This fits within LRM’s strategy to invest early in innovative growth companies that create an international impact from Limburg.”
Isabelle Tennstedt, managing partner at Seeder Fund, adds: “Above all, it was the ambition of Valérie and Simeon, founders of Monsana, to radically improve healthcare, combined with their scientific and technical depth, that convinced us to support this company. We look forward to improving the lives of many patients together.”
Monsana is already collaborating with several Belgian hospitals and leading international pharmaceutical companies and is well-positioned to expand to neighbouring countries. The ultimate goal? “We want to become Europe’s leading AI-driven platform for patient recruitment. For patients seeking access to treatments that could change their lives, this can’t come soon enough.”
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About Seeder Fund
Seeder Fund is a Brussels-based pre-seed fund supporting ambitious digital entrepreneurs in their first financing round. Its mission is to invest at a very early stage and to support founders with strategic advice, personal guidance, and a strong network.
About LRM
LRM is a return-driven investment company that stimulates sustainable economic growth in and from Limburg. As a driving force in a unique regional ecosystem, LRM provides risk capital and expertise to businesses and projects that generate both prosperity and well-being in Limburg and across Flanders. www.lrm.be