Ancora.ai

What Ancora.ai does

Ancora.ai is a Zürich-based digital health company founded in 2020 that operates a patient-facing platform called "Ancora" designed to help cancer patients and their caregivers discover, compare, and enroll in relevant clinical trials. The product is positioned as an "AI-enabled" clinical trial recruitment platform, though no specific AI/ML technical components, proprietary models, or matching algorithms are publicly disclosed. The company's value proposition targets a well-documented problem in oncology: the difficulty patients face in identifying and accessing trials for which they are eligible. Ancora aggregates trial information into a single unified interface to address this access gap.

The platform appears to operate on a direct-to-consumer model aimed at end-user patients and caregivers, with no publicly disclosed pricing, no stated revenue model, and no announced enterprise or pharma-sponsor contracts. The only disclosed commercial-style relationship is an early-stage partnership with Almirall, a dermatology-focused pharmaceutical company, established in January 2020. No go-to-market motion, customer acquisition strategy, or sales infrastructure is described in available sources, and headcount remains at 1-10 employees.

Ancora has sustained operations primarily through a series of small grants and seed-style rounds totaling approximately $481,678 across six funding events from 2020 through 2023. These include support from EIT Health (European health innovation), the Future of Health Grant, the Google for Startups program (in-kind), a single undisclosed $315,000 round in October 2021, and two additional small rounds in 2020 from Almirall and an undisclosed investor. The funding pattern — grant-heavy with one modest equity-like event — is consistent with a very early-stage, pre-commercial company rather than a venture-backed growth startup.

Name

Ancora.ai

Website

https://ancora.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Ancora.ai operates a digital platform that helps cancer patients and caregivers discover, compare, and access relevant clinical trials. Founded in 2020 and based in Zürich, the company targets an under-served patient population seeking trial enrollment.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Clinical Trial Recruitment Platform

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Oncology Pathways & Precision Medicine Decision Support (HLACAGAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Oncology Remote Symptom Monitoring & Care Navigation (HLALAFAD)

Keywords

• Clinical trial recruitment
• Cancer clinical trials
• Patient recruitment platform
• Clinical trial matching
• Oncology trial discovery

Headquarters

HQ city

Zürich

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Core offering

Ancora.ai operates an AI-enabled digital platform, branded Ancora, that helps cancer patients and their caregivers search, compare, and access relevant cancer clinical trials. The platform centralizes oncology trial discovery and enrollment, functioning as a matching layer between patients seeking experimental or alternative treatment options and clinical trial sponsors running oncology studies.

Product overview

Ancora is a single unified platform focused on helping users discover and enroll in cancer clinical trials. The core product enables patients and caregivers to search, compare, and access relevant trial opportunities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ancora An AI-enabled digital platform that helps cancer patients and caregivers search, compare, and access cancer clinical trials. It centralizes oncology trial discovery and enrollment into a single unified experience.

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Mendel: AI platform that structures clinical and genomic data to match patients to trials and research opportunities, overlapping directly with Ancora's patient-trial matching use case.
• Massive Bio: AI-driven oncology clinical trial matching platform that connects cancer patients to trials; competes head-to-head with Ancora in the same oncology patient-recruitment category.
• Deep 6 AI: AI-based patient-trial matching platform used by health systems and sponsors to accelerate clinical trial recruitment across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology.
• Trialbee: Digital patient-recruitment and trial-matching platform serving pharma sponsors and CROs, with comparable patient-centric trial enrollment offerings.
• Trial Library: Clinical trial search and matching service focused on connecting patients, especially in oncology, to relevant trials.
• Antidote Technologies: Digital clinical trial patient-recruitment platform that combines structured trial listings with patient engagement tools, comparable to Ancora's matching-and-access workflow.
• CureForward: Patient engagement and clinical trial enrollment platform with a focus on oncology, providing direct comparability to Ancora's patient-to-trial matching model.

Broad incumbents

• Foundation Medicine: Genomic profiling company that pairs molecular tumor profiling with clinical trial matching for oncology patients; overlaps with Ancora's oncology trial-navigation thesis.
• IQVIA: Global CRO and healthcare data company with broad patient recruitment, real-world evidence, and trial-matching capabilities; competes as an entrenched incumbent across oncology and other therapeutic areas.

Emerging players

• Owkin: AI-focused biotech platform applying machine learning to oncology clinical research and trial design; partial overlap with Ancora's AI-for-oncology-trials positioning.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights4 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ancora_ai
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ancora-ai

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ancora.ai