How an EIT Jumpstarter winner is building a deep-tech venture in Madeira with local roots and European reach.
After winning the 2025 EIT Jumpstarter Health category and the Special Prize for EU Outermost Regions, MYLeukaemia has evolved from a research project into MYCancer, a deep-tech company advancing functional precision oncology from Madeira.
Cancer treatment is rarely one-size-fits-all. MYLeukaemia set out to explore a more personalised approach using bone-marrow-on-chip technology to recreate key aspects of a patient's bone-marrow environment and study how blood cancers respond to therapies ex vivo.
When the team joined EIT Jumpstarter in 2025, the project already had a strong scientific foundation. The programme helped them tackle a different challenge: turning scientific potential into a viable venture.
EIT Jumpstarter was the moment we stopped presenting MYLeukaemia only as a scientific breakthrough and started building it as a European deeptech company. It gave us the structure, pressure and credibility to show that frontier medtech can be born in Madeira, an EU outermost region, and still speak to one of Europe’s biggest healthcare challenges.
Hugo R. Caires PhD, Founder and CEO of MYCancer
Jumpstarter encouraged the team to think beyond scientific validation, helping them identify potential users, understand the evidence needed for adoption and explore business and regulatory pathways. It also connected the Madeira-based team with mentors, entrepreneurs, investors and innovation networks across Europe.
The most valuable outcome was not the prize money. It was the transition in mindset from research project to venture.
Hugo R. Caires PhD, Founder and CEO of MYCancer
From lab to venture
Less than a year later, MYLeukaemia evolved into MYCancer - Technology for Functional Precision Oncology, Lda., a deep-tech company incorporated in Madeira.
A major milestone followed: €335 124 in eligible investment through Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan for MYCANCER MADEIRA ORIGINS. The funding is enabling the establishment of MYCancer Labs within the SESARAM / Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça healthcare environment, bringing its R&D activities closer to healthcare professionals and clinical practice while building the infrastructure and research capacity needed to advance the technology.
The company has also gained further recognition, including first place in the PhD Researcher category at H-INNOVA Health Innovation HUB 2025, Top 10 at Startup World Cup Portugal 2026, the Impact Award 2026 at HealthQ UP, and European InnoMedCatalyst Overall Winner 2026.
MYCancer remains focused on research and industrial development. Its next steps include strengthening the reproducibility of its platform, generating evidence for future clinical development and expanding collaborations across Portugal and Europe. The company also plans to open a pre-seed financing round in 2027 to support its next evidence and market-development milestones.
From MYLeukaemia’s scientific beginnings to MYCancer Labs taking shape in Madeira, the team’s progress shows how EIT Jumpstarter can help turn research into a viable business, connect regional innovators with European opportunities and create pathways towards real-world impact.
Where innovation starts should not determine how far it can go.
Share this page
