Gynaia Raises $2.5 Million in Seed Funding to Transform Women’s Health Diagnostics

Gynaia, a pioneering women’s health startup, announced today the close of its $2.5M/€2.3M seed financing round.

Gynaia uniquely integrates continuous learning, training & certification, quality control, and AI-based clinical decision support for medical imaging into a unified solution to advance Women’s Health standard of care.

Mission

Building on the foundation of the IOTA (International Ovarian Tumor Analysis) consortium, Gynaia translates decades of research and global collaboration into practical tools that help raise the level of clinician expertise, shorten waiting lists, accelerate access to accurate diagnoses, reduce unnecessary surgeries, and expand high-quality care into primary care settings.

Diagnostic Urgency

Hundreds of thousands of women are diagnosed with gynecological cancers each year worldwide, with 207,000 deaths in 2024. Ovarian and uterine cancers continue to result in preventable deaths due to late diagnosis, inefficient triage, and delayed surgical intervention. Women face long waiting times, limited access to specialists, and inconsistent diagnostic quality.

For example, early-stage ovarian cancer has a five-year survival rate of over 90% when detected early, but when detected late, survival drops to around 15%. Other women’s health conditions, such as endometrial pathologies, are also poorly triaged. In early pregnancy, ectopic pregnancies can lead to severe complications or death if not identified in time.

Solution

Gynaia addresses these challenges by enabling more accurate diagnoses through ultrasound clinical decision support, AI-enabled quality control, expert training and certification, and continuous learning. This results in earlier detection, more fertility-sparing surgeries, fewer unnecessary procedures, and ultimately, lives saved.

Moreover, by standardizing these tools and making them broadly available to gynecologists, sonographers, radiologists, and clinicians beyond specialized centers, Gynaia helps democratize access to expert-level ultrasound diagnostics.

Gynaia partners with leading ultrasound equipment manufacturers, national health systems, and professional societies to improve routine diagnostics and accelerate research across women’s health, with an initial focus on gynecologic oncology, early pregnancy, obstetrics, and fertility.

Investor Consortium

Gynaia is a joint spin-off between KU Leuven and the university hospitals of Leuven (UZ Leuven) in Belgium. Headquartered in Boston, MA, it was founded by Professor Dirk Timmerman (Head of Gynecology and Obstetrics at UZ Leuven), Professor Tom Bourne (Chair in Gynecology at Imperial College London and visiting professor at KU Leuven), Belgian health tech entrepreneur Herman Verrelst, and CEO Steven Van Vooren.

The $2.5M seed round was co-led by the Gemma Frisius Fund, the KU Leuven seed capital fund that has been supporting start-ups for over 25 years, and Heran Partners, a specialist venture capital investor committed to creating transformative impact within the life sciences and healthcare industry.

The funding allows Gynaia to launch its operations, advancing product development, market entry, and regulatory approvals.

Milestones to Date

• Formation of a deeply experienced team combining expertise in clinical community support, continuous learning, SaaS/SaMD, ML/AI, regulatory affairs, clinical research, and business strategy
• Establishment of a regulatory-compliant Quality Management System (QMS), with submissions underway, including the IOTA ADNEX validated risk model for ovarian masses
• Deployment of a regulatory-grade clinical decision support app, with pilots underway in the UK and Europe
• Active engagements with hospitals, cancer alliances, sonography networks, and key opinion leaders for real-world implementation and co-development

Founder Perspectives

Steven Van Vooren, PhD, CEO

“We’re at an inflection point where AI is beginning to meaningfully elevate diagnostics. What makes Gynaia special is the unique combination of IOTA’s scientific foundation, KU Leuven’s innovation ecosystem, and this team’s execution power.

For me, Gynaia brings together everything I care about professionally: a global clinical community, responsible AI, Software as a Medical Device, and impact in real-world clinical practice.”

Dirk Timmerman, MD, PhD, Co-founder

“Twenty years ago, we founded the IOTA group to improve diagnostics through science and international collaboration. With Gynaia, we now have the means to bring that scientific work into routine care, supported by medical device-grade tools and a dedicated team. We are creating a platform that connects research and clinical excellence and is impactful in everyday practice.

Elevating the standard of care in women’s health requires more than just technology. It’s about providing comprehensive training, continuous learning, and making sure the expertise of leading specialists reaches every practitioner, beyond academic hospitals and specialized centers.”

About Gynaia

Gynaia is a women’s health diagnostics company that empowers gynecological professionals with continuous learning, certification, and clinical-grade AI tools to improve care in gynecologic oncology, early pregnancy, obstetrics, fertility, and beyond. By combining explainable AI, regulatory-grade software, and a global expert network, Gynaia enables faster triage, earlier diagnoses, and fewer unnecessary procedures.

For more information, visit www.gynaia.com or follow #Gynaia on LinkedIn.

About Gemma Frisius Fund

The Gemma Frisius Fund (GFF) is a seed capital fund, established in 1997 as a joint venture between KU Leuven, KBC Private Equity and BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity. The objective of the fund is to stimulate the creation and the growth of KU Leuven spin-off companies, by providing seed capital in the very early phases of their development trajectory. The fund combines the research and technology transfer expertise of KU Leuven with the financial and investment expertise of the two banks.

About Heran Partners

Heran Partners is based in Belgium with a clear European investment focus, founded by Annie Vereecken, Katleen Vandersmissen, Herman Verrelst and Joris Mortelmans. Driven by a dedicated team with strong scientific and entrepreneurial backgrounds, HERAN provides venture & growth capital, accompanied by a strong network, deep expertise and mentorship to start-ups and scale-ups with a solid technology platform and strong market potential.

HERAN engages at seed, Series A and Series B stage. They focus on solutions that are solving an unmet need in the market. This solution can be hardware (medtech), software (healthtech), services or a combination.

Press Contacts

• HERAN Press contacts (BE - Antwerp): Founding Partner: Herman Verrelst,
• Gynaia Press contacts (USA - Boston, MA): CEO: Steven Van Vooren,