Turkish AI Healthtech Biorce Raises $52.5M
Turkish-founded AI healthtech startup Biorce has closed a $52.5 million Series A round to accelerate its international expansion. The company's platform uses AI to automate and streamline clinical trials, addressing regulatory and operational challenges in pharmaceutical development. The funding signals growing investor appetite for Turkish vertical AI startups targeting global, regulated industries.
- The Series A round was led by DST Global Partners, with increased participation from existing investors like Norrsken VC and YZR Capital. It also attracted high-profile angel investors, including Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI, and Nik Storonsky, CEO of Revolut. - Although described as Turkish-founded, the company is headquartered in Barcelona and was established in 2024 by a Portuguese team: CEO Pedro Coelho, Clara Bernardes, José Faria, and Diogo Pisoeiro, who chose the city for its tech talent. - The company's AI platform, "Aika," is built on a proprietary dataset of approximately one million clinical trials and aims to reduce trial preparation timelines by up to 50%. It is designed to create "regulator-ready protocols" with high accuracy, addressing a key bottleneck in drug development. - This funding brings Biorce's total capital raised to over $60 million, following a €3.5 million seed round in November 2024 and a €5 million extension in the summer of 2025. - The capital will be used for significant international expansion, particularly into the United States, with plans to open a development and R&D hub in Austin, Texas. - Biorce is tackling a costly problem; protocol amendments in traditional trials can add €500,000 to €1 million in costs and cause an average delay of six weeks per amendment. - The global market for AI in clinical trials was valued at over $1.3 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 14% through 2032, indicating a substantial market opportunity. - CEO Pedro Coelho has a background in life sciences consulting and previously founded and led a specialized Contract Research Organization (CRO) focused on oncology, giving him direct experience with the problems Biorce aims to solve.
