Funding

Biotech Startup Senticell Raises $7M in Seed Funding

Sep 2, 2026 | By Devin Jacobs

SUMMARY

Senticell raised $7M in Seed funding.
The funding will support cancer testing and clinical studies.
Senticell develops liquid biopsy tests for cancer.

Senticell, a Philadelphia, PA-based biotechnology company developing a new class of liquid biopsy built on red blood cell (RBC)-bound nucleic acids, has raised $7 million in a Seed funding round.

The round saw backers The Venture City, Capital Factory, Scalpel Ventures, Evoce Capital, and others.

The company will use the capital to advance its liquid biopsy platform in oncology and support ongoing prospective clinical studies.

Funding Snapshot

Metric	Details
Fundraise Amount	$7M
Funding Round	Seed
Company	Senticell
Sector	Biotechnology / HealthTech
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Key Application	Liquid Biopsy / Oncology

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About Senticell

Founded by Neha Shah, and Nilam Mangalmurti, Senticell is developing liquid biopsy diagnostics based on nucleic acids bound to red blood cells. Its platform, exclusively licensed from the University of Pennsylvania, aims to identify disease signals that may be missed by conventional plasma based liquid biopsy tests.

Core offerings include:

RBC based liquid biopsy
Oncology diagnostics
Disease signal detection
Infectious disease research

Core Technologies / Products / Services

Capability/Product	Application/Use Case
RBC liquid biopsy	Detection of disease-associated DNA and RNA
Oncology platform	Cancer detection and monitoring
Recurrence monitoring	Tracking disease after treatment
Pathogen detection	Research into sepsis and pneumonia

Leadership Comments

"This financing reflects strong investor conviction in the underlying science and in our teams ability to translate that science into a scalable diagnostic platform," said Neha Shah, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Senticell.

"I have closely followed Dr. Mangalmurti's research at Penn. Senticell will translate these basic science findings into clinically applicable RBC-platforms that will be more sensitive, more rapid, and less expensive than currently available testing approaches in diseases like cancer and infections," said Dr. Steven Albelda, Scientific Advisor to Senticell.