Elypta is a Swedish deep tech scale-up developing groundbreaking metabolism-based liquid biopsy solutions for early cancer detection – they’re harnessing the unique metabolic signatures of tumors to identify cancer at its earliest stages. Elypta is a member of the EIC Scaling Club's New Biotech Platforms group.
We recently caught up with Elypta’s CEO Karl Bergman to talk about their innovative solution, the company’s journey, the team’s hurdles and milestones, as well as Elypta’s membership in the EIC Scaling Club.
While the mission of enabling earlier cancer detection may not be unique in itself, Elypta's approach certainly is. The company has focused on metabolism-based liquid biopsy since its founding in 2017, setting it apart in a field dominated by DNA and protein-based detection methods.
Most liquid biopsy companies rely on measuring circulating tumor DNA in the bloodstream or specific protein markers. The difference, explains Karl, is that Elypta takes a fundamentally different approach by looking into human metabolism and cancer-related metabolic changes to find biomarkers.
The company's breakthrough discovery centers on changes in the biosynthesis of glycosaminoglycans that occur very early in cancer formation. Through extensive research into metabolic pathways, Elypta identified this as their “secret sauce” – the key to unlocking early cancer detection.
“We are looking to exploit human metabolism and cancer and find biomarkers from those activities. There's a change in the biosynthesis of glycosaminoglycans very early on in cancer formation, and that led us to develop assays to measure and quantify these molecules in both blood and urine as a way to identify an early signal for cancer,” explains Karl.
Elypta has developed proprietary assay kits that can measure and quantify glycosaminoglycans – methods that are unique in the world and serve not only as diagnostic tests but also as research tools for pharmaceutical companies and academic cancer research.
Elypta’s leadership team represents a blend of diagnostic development, business strategy, clinical expertise, and technical innovation. Karl points out that finding the perfect blend has been a long and intentional journey and mentions some key hires.
Karin Mattsson, VP of R&D, joined in 2019 with more than 20 years of experience developing in vitro diagnostics. She has been instrumental in establishing Elypta's R&D team, processes, and production capabilities.
The company's business development is driven by Fredrik Härenstam, who joined in 2020 and leads market development, sales, and communications. His extensive experience driving innovative projects across multiple industries as a consultant has proven invaluable for the company's external-facing activities.
In 2022, Elypta brought on Volker Liebenberg as Chief Medical Officer, leveraging his experience as former Director of Medical Affairs at Illumina in Europe and the Middle East. His extensive diagnostic experience and clinical networks have elevated the company's clinical development and studies to new levels.
Developing an entirely new biomarker and taking it through to an approved diagnostic test is both time-intensive and capital-intensive, requiring mastery of diverse competencies – a significant challenge for any resource-constrained startup.
The company made a bold decision early in its journey when, with only four employees, they committed to launching the largest study of all time in kidney cancer diagnostics. This ambitious undertaking created a gravity that attracted both funding and top-tier talent, enabling successful execution ever since.
“The main pride is still ahead of us – it's really when we start to help patients. But until then, with all the execution on the way there, there are many important milestones that signal progress.”
Over eight years, Elypta has raised $30 million in funding, demonstrating sustained investor confidence in their approach and potential. The company has also achieved ISO 13485 certification and generated substantial scientific validation, with more than 10 published papers in cancer research using glycosaminoglycans.
Elypta's most significant clinical milestone came earlier this year when the company presented development data from the first cohort of their pivotal study in kidney cancer at the European Association of Urology (EAU) 2025 congress in Madrid. This presentation was awarded a “game changer” plenary session at one of the world's largest urology conferences – a remarkable recognition for a new diagnostic test.
Elypta views the EIC Scaling Club initiative as crucial for facilitating learning and raising visibility for ambitious European deep tech companies. For a company with Elypta's scale of ambition – conducting larger studies to reach broader populations and detect cancer earlier – the club represents an important resource.
The company sees the club as a valuable platform for accessing the expertise and capital necessary to execute their vision of transforming cancer detection and improving patient outcomes on a global scale.
“Elypta certainly has big ambitions in what we want to do. That will require competence, and it will require capital. Ultimately, that's scaling to me – those two things you need to attract. If the EIC Scaling Club can help pull together those things and make them easier for us to attract, that's fantastic.”
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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