The seed-round investment from Hong Kong’s PacBridge is intended to further commercialize a way of identifying the genetic mutations in tumours—which is key to precision treatments—more quickly and detecting recurrences of cancer sooner. The system was developed through a partnership with Mila, the Quebec AI skunkworks founded by Yoshua Bengio. (The Logic)

Talking point: Avitia’s technology is built on work by predecessor Imagia Canexia, which filed for bankruptcy in 2023 after taking on tens of millions of dollars in private and public investments. Avitia CEO James Lumsdaine, who’s also a partner in PacBridge, was chief executive at Imagia Canexia, too. Knowing exactly what mutations turned cells cancerous helps oncologists decide how to treat them. Avitia touts a collaboration with B.C. specialists in gynecological cancers, who said its tests are useful in classifying different endometrial tumours—a form of uterine cancer—that can be very hard to tell apart using traditional examinations under microscopes.