Belgian healthtech startup Monsana has raised €500,000 in pre-seed funding from Seeder Fund, LRM, and private investors to make clinical trials more accessible to patients.
The funding will accelerate the AI-driven platform that matches patients to relevant clinical studies, tackling one of the biggest bottlenecks in drug development: recruitment.
Fixing the trial recruitment gap
Up to 70% of clinical trials are delayed due to recruitment challenges. Patients often miss out on promising treatments because they are not identified in time, while hospitals and pharmaceutical companies struggle with costly, manual screening processes.
Monsana’s AI assistant analyzes unstructured medical notes and eligibility criteria, identifying trial candidates much faster and at scale. Early pilots in Belgian hospitals show the platform can double patient identification rates in a fraction of the time.
“Our AI assistant can interpret nuanced medical notes and trial criteria, helping hospitals surface eligible patients much faster,” said Simeon Devos, CTO and co-founder of Monsana.
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Founders’ mission
Founded in 2024 by Dr. Valerie Vandeweerd (CEO) and Simeon Devos (CTO), the startup combines medical expertise with advanced AI.
Valerie, a former gynecologist and clinical trial expert at Johnson & Johnson, witnessed first-hand how difficult it can be for patients — including her own family — to access experimental treatments. That experience inspired her to build Monsana.
Scaling collaboration with hospitals and pharma
With the fresh capital, Monsana will expand its platform across Belgium and into neighboring countries while strengthening collaborations with hospitals, CROs, and pharmaceutical companies.
“Monsana offers tremendous efficiency gains in clinical trials, benefiting patients, hospitals, and pharma alike,” said Dries Bauters, Investment Manager at LRM.
Isabelle Tennstedt, Managing Partner at Seeder Fund, added:
“We were convinced by Valerie and Simeon’s ambition to radically improve healthcare, combined with their scientific and technical depth.”
Long-term vision
Monsana’s goal is to become Europe’s leading AI-powered clinical trial recruitment platform, ensuring no eligible patient is overlooked.
“Our mission is simple: every patient deserves access to innovation,” said Valerie Vandeweerd, CEO. “With AI, we can remove inefficiencies and make clinical research more human-centric and accessible.”
