2020 has been an auspicious year for HeartGenetics. After winning the HINTT award, the Técnico spin-off has just been acquired by Impact Lab, an Italian leading company in the oncology genetics. The announcement was made this Tuesday, 17th November.
HeartGenetics co-founder and Técnico professor, Ana Teresa Freitas, will actively continue in her role as CEO and will follow “the development of the company and its integration in the Impact Lab group”, as mentioned in the statement that announces the acquisition. In addition, HeartGenetics will continue to operate with its name, serving and expanding its customer network. This acquisition will allow HeartGenetics to expand in the B2B market and also to expand its online business in Spain, Portugal and South America.
Professor Ana Teresa Freitas stresses “this acquisition represents a major achievement for the ecosystem of Portuguese healthcare startups. In 2013, we created a company that could use genetic data and computational tools to improve everyone’s health. The acquisition of HeartGenetics by Impact Lab is an incredible and unique opportunity to further develop HeartGenetics, improve our digital and bioinformatics capabilities, and deepen our knowledge in the field of personalized medicine”.
According to Impact Lab, the acquisition of the Portuguese startup is part of the strategy to become a global leader in all major genetics markets. After this acquisition, the Italian group will be able to further expand its tests, including pharmacogenetic, cardiovascular and wellness tests successfully developed by HeartGenetics.
“HeartGenetics proved to have the skills to develop new genetic tests and software taking into consideration the whole research and development process”, highlights Vittorio Grazioli, CEO of Impact Lab Group. “These skills will be crucial for the future development of affordable genetic testing and will be instrumental in the development of new tests for the preventive medicine market.”
According to Duarte Mineiro, Partner at Armilar Venture Partners, the main shareholder of HeartGenetics, “we are very proud of the work carried out by Ana Teresa Freitas and her team namely in terms of technology and products, which have been crucial for this acquisition”.
In 2015, HeartGenetics was considered one of the 10 best healthcare startups worldwide, standing out among 70 competitors from 17 countries at Berlin’s World Health Summit.
The Técnico spin-off aims to use genetic information to improve everyone’s health and well-being. Internationally recognised in the areas of molecular biology, genetics, information technology and artificial intelligence, HeartGenetics is able to extract genetic data from a simple saliva sample and generate a report containing very useful and easy-to-read information.
