Filament Sciences, a professional hair care brand, raises $2M in seed funding led by Wittington Ventures to expand salon partnerships.

ViewsML, a company developing AI-driven virtual biomarker staining technology, has raised $4.9 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Wittington Ventures. New investors Continuum Health Ventures and Mayo Clinic participated alongside existing backers including RiSC Capital and Debiopharm. The Vancouver-based startup is building what it calls the world's first virtual biomarker library, using artificial intelligence to generate per-cell biomarker spatial insights from pathology images without laboratory staining. The technology converts traditional immunohistochemistry processes, which typically take days or weeks, into software that delivers results in minutes. Founded in 2023, ViewsML will use the funding to accelerate commercialisation, expand strategic partnerships, advance clinical validation and grow its team. The company is collaborating with healthcare institutions, diagnostic companies and biopharma organisations to deploy its platform across research and clinical applications.

ViewsML secures funding to accelerate commercialization of ai-driven virtual biomarker staining platform. April 20, 2026 10:00 ET | Source: ViewsML VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - ViewsML, a company building the computational layer for biomarker discovery by transforming tissue analysis from a lab process into software, today announced the completion of an oversubscribed $4.9M seed funding round led by Wittington Ventures. Additionally, new investors Continuum Health Ventures and Mayo Clinic contributed alongside repeat investors RiSC Capital, Debiopharm, WUTIF, Defined, and e-Fund. This funding reflects the investment community's recognition of the significance of ViewsML's technology and its development of the world's first virtual biomarker library using artificial intelligence to generate per-cell biomarker spatial insights from pathology images without the need for laboratory staining. As demand for scalable, high-resolution biomarker data grows across drug development and diagnostics, traditional staining workflows have become a critical bottleneck. Virtual biomarker staining represents a fundamental shift in how immunostaining is generated and analyzed, enabling an entirely new paradigm for assay development. ViewsML is leading this transformation through a scalable computational platform that converts a traditionally lab-bound process into software via its first-of-its-kind virtual biomarker library. Through strategic collaborations with leading healthcare institutions, diagnostic companies, and biopharma organizations, the company is positioned to accelerate adoption across both research and clinical applications. The capital will be used to accelerate commercialization of ViewsML's AI-driven virtual biomarker staining platform; expand its strategic partnerships; advance clinical validation of virtual biomarker panels; and grow the company's engineering, scientific, and commercial teams. "Biomarkers are foundational to how we understand and treat disease, yet the way we measure them remains constrained by legacy approaches. ViewsML is redefining how biomarkers are measured and analyzed - unlocking a step-change in speed, scale, and accessibility across research and clinical settings," said Zeeshan Ali, Partner, Wittington Ventures. "Virtual staining has the potential to accelerate workflows, lower costs, and unlock new applications across translational research, diagnostics, clinical trials and emerging areas such as neurodegenerative disease - driving faster insights and improved patient outcomes." "We're building the computational layer for next-generation diagnostics, and are excited to partner with Wittington Ventures and work with Mayo Clinic to accelerate that vision," said Kenneth To, CEO, ViewsML. "This capital will enable us to fast-track our efforts to revolutionize immunohistochemistry (IHC). By building the world's first virtual biomarker library, we're going to empower scientists and clinicians to analyze biomarker staining in minutes rather than the traditional days or weeks." ViewsML will be at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2026 from April 17-22, 2026, at the San Diego Convention Center in booth 1557, and presenting several poster sessions with partners. About ViewsML ViewsML is building the world's first virtual biomarker library, an expanding platform of AI models designed to extract biomarker insights directly from routine pathology images. By virtualizing immunohistochemistry (IHC), a diagnostic process that has remained largely unchanged for decades, ViewsML enables scientists and clinicians to analyze biomarker staining in minutes rather than the days to weeks required by traditional laboratory workflows. The company's technology delivers per-cell spatial biomarker insights from standard H&E slides, preserving scarce tissue samples while accelerating research, clinical trials, and patient care. Working with leading pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and diagnostic labs, ViewsML is helping unlock the full biological value of existing pathology data and enabling a faster, more scalable path to precision medicine. To learn more, visit www.viewsml.com. About Wittington Ventures Wittington Ventures is a $500M multi-stage investment platform that backs transformative companies across the consumer, commerce, healthcare, and climate sectors. Backed by Wittington Investments - the holding company of the Weston group of companies that includes Loblaw, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Choice Properties - the firm leverages its proprietary industry access, philanthropic research insights, and long-term capital to support founders throughout their growth journey. PR Contact Public Relations and Marketing Communications [email protected]