FACIT’s Compass Rose Fund helps Ontario’s cancer research innovators, arising from both public and private sectors, realize the commercial possibilities of their inventions by supporting early stage development projects. The Compass Rose Fund anchors and scales biotechs and attracts investments to Ontario, supporting the province’s competitive position as a destination for biotechnology.
Designed to address the funding gap between traditional public granting agencies and private investors, the Compass Rose Fund typically invests between $1M and $5M to support cancer-related, early stage commercialization activities. These include: proof-of-concept (POC), validation, standard operating procedures, market analyses, IP protection and acquisition, expert guidance and management.
“Support in the early years from FACIT and OICR were critical to getting our start and building the company in Ontario. These types of investments and this particular model help bolster commercialization and growth of the Ontario life sciences ecosystem.”
Rachel Bartholomew, Founder & CEO, Hyivy Health
Dr. John Valliant, CEO, Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc.
“There are not many sources of early seed capital for Ontario life sciences innovations and availability of follow-on financing sources are even more scarce. FACIT helps to fill this gap, and ensuring this capital is available for Ontario entrepreneurs is critical to advance translation so innovations can reach patients sooner.”
Compass Rose Fund Profile
| Investment per start-up* | $1M to $5M, dispersed in tranches based on achieving pre-established milestones |
| Funding Stage | Seed & follow-on |
| Development Stage | Discovery to early clinical |
| Type of Investment | FACIT will receive considerations on commercialization revenues and/or equity in start-up companies |
| Eligibility | Intellectual Property for oncology development based in Ontario |
| Preferred Investment Qualifications | Cutting edge technology – transformative not incremental; Significant business opportunity – differentiated, competitive technology; Defined market/technology vertical; Strong IP position – breadth, defensible, blocking ability, freedom to operate; Ability of funding to advance the technology to a value inflection point; Addresses an unmet need for cancer patients and/or cancer clinicians; Economic benefit to Ontario; Suitability of the team executing the work plan; Regulatory strategy – clarity of the path, territories, time and capital required. |
| Main Goal of Investment | Achieve a value inflection point, positioning investees to attract additional funding from a wider investor network |
Recently Funded By The Compass Rose Fund
We are investing in Ontario’s innovation economy through these breakthrough start-ups.
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Innovation Type
Cancer Type
Current Funding Stage
FACIT Fund
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cTRL Therapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose
Harnessing the power of cTRLs (circulating tumor-reactive lymphocytes) in the blood to unlock the next generation of solid tumor cancer therapies.
Radiant Biotherapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Series A
Fund:
Compass Rose
An antibody platform company developing multi-valent, multi-specific therapeutics, called Multabodies, to deliver transformative therapies for patients.
Xpan Inc
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose, Falcons’ Fortunes, Prospects
Xpan’s Universal Trocar System is a minimally invasive surgical innovation – a first of its kind, radially expanding trocar that can be tailored by surgeons during laparoscopic procedures to accommodate various sized instruments.
OICR (breast cancer risk – Ontario Health Study)
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
DNA methylation and breast cancer risk
Robarts Research Institute (3D ABUS device)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Novel, wearable, cost-effective 3D automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) device as an alternative to supplemental imaging in women with dense breasts.
AI Vali Inc
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose
Cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions and tools that can process and analyze large medical imaging datasets accurately and in real-time, leading to better decision-making and workflow efficiencies.
PrecisionXRT
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Brain
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Falcons’ Fortunes, Prospects
PrecisionXRT specializes in stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery, offering its innovative StereoRay system to deliver cutting-edge treatments.
Yellowbird Diagnostics Inc
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Novel PET imaging tracer, NeuCaVis, is a radiofluorinated fructose molecule that provides higher sensitivity and specificity than fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), the current clinical gold standard PET contrast agent.
Virano Therapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Virano is bringing improved and safer gene therapies to patients. They are developing a pipeline of the next generation of enhanced gene therapies using Vector Potentiators (VEPO) and vector therapeutics for high unmet need diseases through in-house discovery and partnerships with global gene therapy players.
DTPx Therapeutics (UHN)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Other
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Falcons’ Fortunes, Prospects
DTPx Therapeutics (University Health Network) is aiming to prevent relapse in colorectal cancer patients using a novel cell-based immunotherapy targeting a newly identified group of hibernating and drug tolerant cancer cells.
Point Surgical Inc
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Falcons’ Fortunes, Prospects
Instant and accurate intra-surgical identification of cancer types or subtypes in under 10 seconds through combining laser vaporization and mass spectrometry
OICR (enhanced WD repeat platform)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Enhanced target screening for WD Repeat Platform to accelerate the identification of targets that with higher probability of generating clinical candidates.
OICR (Target Prioritization Platform)
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Target Prioritization Platform – an interactive, web-based application to interrogate curated knowledge databases. It leverages genomic, ‘omics’, pathway annotations and clinical data that allows users to explore and view biologically related data.
Hyivy Health
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose, Prospects
Remote patient monitoring, pelvic rehab system for gynecological and colorectal cancer patients and their clinicians
HDAX Therapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Other
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose, Prospects
A blood-brain barrier permeable HDAC6 selective inhibitors for CNS cancers based on proprietary technology that unlocks novel binding mechanism for improved next-gen targeting.
QuAccel (OICR)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Prospects
Innovative quantum computing based technology (QuAccel) to screen protein-ligand interactions with higher speed and accuracy for drug discovery projects
Air Microfluidic Systems Inc
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Falcons’ Fortunes, Prospects
Air microfluidics-enabled active compression sleeve for treating breast cancer-related lymphedema
Tenomix
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Other
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose, Prospects
The first-ever automated, bench-top robotic scanning device for the detection of lymph nodes in surgically removed colorectal cancer tissue, making this step less labour intensive, less costly, and more reliable resulting in better patient care.
Sunnybrook Research Institute (prostate cancer screening kit)
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Prostate
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
At-home semen-based screening test for prostate cancer that allows easy and fast specimen collection. It consists of a compact collection kit which preserves all genetic material and then is mailed to the lab for biomarker analysis.
doctalk
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
A virtual space for physicians to better collaborate with each other and with organizations around pharmaceutical information.
Bridge7 Oncology
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Falcons’ Fortunes, Prospects
Scaling clinical expertise with AI to automate and improve the delivery of cancer care
Replica Analytics (acquired by Aetion)
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Prospects
Modeling software to generate synthetic data that protects the individual privacy of data subjects and maintains the statistical properties of real data. This enables easy, fast and effective access to high utility data that is made portable through data simulators
Multimagnetics Inc
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Hand-held photoacoustic device to detect tumour margins and residual disease in the surgical cavity during breast-conserving surgery
University of Toronto (mitochondrial RNA polymerase inhibitor)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Development of small-molecule inhibitors of mitochondrial RNA polymerase (POLRMT) as an anticancer strategy
OICR (WD repeat platform)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
WD Repeat Platform – targeting multiple members of the essential scaffolding component of WD40 repeat domain (WDR) family with small molecules.
Sunnybrook Research Institute (chemotherapy response prediction)
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Quantitative ultrasound to predict breast tumour response to chemotherapy
University of Toronto (SIMPL protein-protein interaction)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
A unique system for detecting protein-protein interactions (PPI) in real time called the Split Intein-Mediated Protein Ligation (SIMPL).
Polumiros
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Falcons’ Fortunes, Prospects
ReFilx, a polymeric soft tissue filler for the permanent restoration of breast tissue defects following lumpectomy
Talon Pharmaceuticals
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Heme
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Developing a novel series of small molecule drugs to induce apoptosis and impede cancer cell proliferation
Notch Therapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Notch Therapeutics has developed best-in-class, off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived synthetic T cells of unprecedented scale and functionality to further the advancement of cellular immunotherapies for patients and their families.
OICR (ADC-linker platform)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
ADC-Linker Platform – developing novel cyclic and heterocyclic hydrazone-based linkers for antibody-drug-conjugates (ADC), allowing for “tuning” of the drug-release properties of the ADC and optimizing for desired applications,
QurCan Therapeutics (formerly Nanology Labs)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose, Prospects
QurCan Therapeutics is fostering scientific creativity and pioneering a proprietary nanoparticle drug delivery technology called TERP to accelerate advanced nanomedicine-based therapeutics.
16-Bit
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Prospects
Automatic analysis of screening mammograms for breast cancer
DNAstack
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose, Prospects
Development of a cloud platform for genomics data management, analysis and sharing
Dalriada Therapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Heme
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Prospects
Developing a DT-1 class of small molecules, for the treatment of leukemia, with selective cancer cell-killing activity and reduced toxicity due to a unique cloaking mechanism.
KA Imaging
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Other
Funding Stage:
Series A
Fund:
Compass Rose, Prospects
World’s first and only portable dual-energy detector, enabling bone and soft tissue differentiation in a single, highly sensitive x-ray exposure.
Radialis Medical
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Prospects
Radialis Medical is developing an advanced Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) system for highly sensitive molecular (or functional) imaging of small pre-invasive cancerous breast lesions independent of breast tissue density.
OICR (anthracycline sensitivity diagnostic)
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Molecular profiling for anthracycline sensitivity – A novel diagnostic gene test with a high degree of accuracy, to predict whether a patient would benefit from Anthracycline chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer.
Esphera SynBio
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose, Falcons’ Fortunes, Prospects
Exosome-based immunotherapies generated using synthetic biology technology
Propellon Therapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Heme
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
Developing potent and selective small molecule WDR5 inhibitors for the treatment of leukemias and solid tumours
Pattern Pharma (formerly Realist Pharma)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Prospects
Evaluation of survival benefit and preclinical proof of concept of a novel ganglioside-based cancer vaccine.
Queen’s University (CYP inhibitors)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Heme
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Development of novel CYP26 inhibitors for the treatment of leukemia and myeloma with potential greater specificity and less toxicity than current inhibitors.
Fusion Pharmaceuticals (acquired by AstraZeneca)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
Next-generation radiopharmaceuticals for precision medicine (antibody conjugate for lung cancer), providing a safer approach to targeted radiotherapy by helping the drug clear from normal, healthy tissues and reducing toxicity
Novera Therapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Heme
Funding Stage:
Seed
Fund:
Compass Rose
Development of BCL6 inhibitors for the treatment of hematological cancers
FocusOnCare
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Falcons’ Fortunes
ChemoTracker App – mobile health app to track patients’ treatment and side effects and merge with patient provider platform.
Capnostics (acquired by PAVmed)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Other
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Prospects
CellMate product for esophageal cell sampling for early detection in patients at high risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma
Sunnybrook Research Institute (chemotherapy monitoring)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Clinical low-frequency ultrasound to monitor tumor response to chemotherapy in breast cancer patients undergoing treatment.
OICR (PRoTECT breast cancer test)
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Ring Study to Evaluate the PRedicTive brEast Cancer Test (PRoTECT)
Sunnybrook Research Institute (CEA vaccine)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Development of anti-CEA vaccine, for the prevention of breast cancer metastases, that generates a mostly humoural response that has shown to “break” tolerance to CEA using common adjuvants.
Ziliomics
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose, Prospects
Development of heliotrope bioinformatics software platform
Sunnybrook Research Institute (ultra-low dose microbubbles)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Falcons’ Fortunes
Ultra-Low dose microbubbles that are only responsive to the ultrasound frequency used in cancer treatment, enabling significantly lower volumes and costs while potentially improving safety.
OICR (self-adjuvanting vaccines)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Prospects
Fully synthetic, self-adjuvanting vaccines based on proprietary synthetic peptidoglycans linked with tumor-associated antigenic epitopes for cancer immunotherapy.
Turnstone Biologics Inc
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Series A,B,C, IPO
Fund:
Compass Rose
Developing next-generation tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapies by selecting the most potent and tumor-reactive T cells for potential treatment across multiple solid tumors
Fluorinov Pharma (acquired by Trillium Therapeutics)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Heme
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
Breakthrough medicinal chemistry technology enabling fluorine atoms linked to drug candidates to improve therapeutic potency, stability and safety. The lead candidate, FV162, is an oral proteasome inhibitor for the treatment of blood cancers.
OICR (Cellax)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
Cellax is a self-assembling nanoparticle drug-polymer conjugate that selectively targets tumour cells for enhanced cancer treatment with fewer side effects.
XLV Diagnostics
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Breast
Funding Stage:
Series A,B,C
Fund:
Compass Rose
X-ray light valve (XLV) for low-cost digital mammography
Privacy Analytics (acquired by IQVIA)
Innovation Type:
Informatics & AI
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
Software unlocking the vast potential of medical data without compromising individual privacy or causing unacceptable distortion of the data
Arrayus Technologies (formerly Harmonic Medical)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Liver
Funding Stage:
Series A,B,C
Fund:
Compass Rose
A system using ultrasound to both detect and treat tumours in bone and liver for the relief of pain without surgery and without expensive imaging equipment.
McMaster University (radiolabeled insulin probe)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
Radiolabeled Insulin Probe – Insulin-like growth factor receptor 1 molecule labelled with 99-Technicium for gamma scan as a functional replacement to costly 18-FDG PET scan for tumour metabolic activity.
Triphase Accelerator Corporation
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Series A,B,C
Fund:
Compass Rose
Triphase Accelerator is dedicated to advancing novel compounds from pre-IND through Phase 2 clinical proof-of-concept studies using a unique, science-based model that is faster and more cost-effective than traditional pharmaceutical industry approaches.
Kapplex (acquired by Miroculus)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
A digital microfluidics platform for high-throughput apoptosis screening.
Xagenic (acquired by General Atomics)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
Point-of-care platform for decentralized, rapid molecular diagnostic testing including GenEplex platform for clinically accepted leukemia biomarkers.
DLVR Therapeutics
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Liver
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
Novel nanoparticle delivery technology
Receptor-OncoTek (University of Toronto)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Other
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
Preclinical development of PoLi-PTX, Intraperitoneal ovarian cancer therapy
DVS Sciences (acquired by Fluidigm/Standard BioTools)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Multiple
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
Flow cytometer-mass spectrometer for multi-parametric cell and bead analysis.
UHN (TorCell Therapeutics)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
heme
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
Novel T-cell Immunotherapy (autologous cellular therapy)
UHN (proteosome inhibitor)
Innovation Type:
Therapeutics
Cancer Type:
Heme
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
Development of novel chemical proteosome inhibitors
Sunnybrook Research Institute (Glypican-3)
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Liver
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
Glypican-3: a novel marker for the early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma
UHN (radiofrequency ablation)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Liver
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
Novel radiofrequency ablation technology for minimally invasive treatment of solid tumours
ArcticDx
Innovation Type:
Diagnostics
Cancer Type:
Other
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
Development of a colon cancer risk prediction diagnostic tool
Robarts Research Institute (3D ultrasound-guided prostate therapy)
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Prostate
Funding Stage:
Proof of Concept
Fund:
Compass Rose
3D ultrasound-guided intraoperative and dynamic minimally invasive trans-perineal prostate therapy and biopsy platform
Profound Medical
Innovation Type:
Medical Technologies
Cancer Type:
Prostate
Funding Stage:
Exit
Fund:
Compass Rose
MRI-guided transurethral ultrasound therapy for localized prostate cancer