Dr. Maria Chatzou Dunford, Founder and CEO of Lifebit joins Endeavor’s Network

 Lifebit’s technology is the first fully federated genomics platform that integrates and accommodates all best practices and full compliance models, connecting data custodians (like biobanks) to the government/pharma demand for their data. 

Greece, July 28th, 2022 –  Dr. Maria Chatzou Dunford, Founder & CEO of Lifebit, joins Endeavor’s Global Network. Endeavor Greece’s Candidate, Dr. Maria Chatzou Dunford was selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur at the 94th International Selection panel. For the first time after over two years, the International Selection Panel was held in person, in Greece at Costa Navarino on July 11th, 12th, and 13th. Endeavor Entrepreneurs, Board Members, Endeavor Candidates, and Panelists were brought together from countries all over the world to assess Endeavor Candidates and select the next batch of Endeavor Entrepreneurs. 

Maria underwent a demanding selection process having met with 5 internationally recognized executives from the Endeavor network. Her panelists included Ayman Essawy, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Lucky Financial and Endeavor Entrepreneur, Firat Isbecer Founder & CEO of Commencis and Endeavor Entrepreneur, Jose Bonilla, CEO of Chiper and Endeavor Entrepreneur, Marco Fisbhen, Founder & CEO of Descomplica and Endeavor Entrepreneur, and Nick Beim, Partner at Venrock and Endeavor Global Board Member. In this process, she was requested to outline key aspects of Lifebit, including but not limited to, the business model, value proposition, customer base, key metrics, and team dynamics. 

Firat Isbecer, Co-founder and CEO at Commencis, and Panelist at the 94th International Selection Panel states:

“Lifebit can become the Oracle of the genomics industry. It’s growing really fast and has the right foundation to annihilate all established competitors. Maria is a very impressive founder, I rate her with a 10/10: very business-oriented, skilled, and ready to scale this to a billion-dollar company.” 

Following the completion of the International Selection Panel, Dr. Maria Chatzou Dunford secured her membership in the network as an Endeavor Entrepreneur. With this title, she will gain access to high-quality services offered by the global organization, such as meeting important global funds, world-renowned entrepreneurs, and mentoring by leading professionals in all disciplines. Endeavor’s global network now includes 44 Greek entrepreneurs, who have raised funds amounting to over $1.1 Billion.

CEO and Founder Dr. Maria Chatzou Dunford holds a PhD in Biomedicine, MSc in Bioinformatics, and BSc in Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics. She is a passionate entrepreneur having already founded two companies, Innovation Forum Barcelona and Lifebit. Lifebit was founded in 2017 and is currently operating in a $100+ billion global genomics market. 

Maria’s involvement in the Endeavor Network started when Lifebit was selected in the first cohort of our ScaleUp Program. The momentum Lifebit gained since it was founded is shown through the $60M funding round led by Tiger Global Management, its Global Government Partnerships with Genomics England, and Boehringer Ingelheim, its 12x revenue growth from 2020 to 2021, and its $71M Total Equity Funding. 

Lifebit solves one of the largest problems that governments and large pharma companies face: the fact that most genomic, phenotypic, and clinical data is non-usable as it is siloed, complex, and non-standardized. Estimates suggest that just 3% of all data is currently tagged and ready for manipulation, and only one-sixth of this (0.5%) is currently used for analysis. Lifebit’s technology creates new collective understandings from this complex distributed data on an operating system. 

Aphrodite Theodorakopoulou, Healthcare Portfolio Lead, Entrepreneur Experience States:

Maria is a powerhouse. A unique combination of an accomplished scientist, skilled entrepreneur, and thoughtful leader. She’s a true role-model for the local ecosystem, and she rightfully gained her position in our global network, being one of Greece’s best additions to the EE list ever. The billion-dollar industry Lifebit is operating in, the company’s operational efficiency, the uniqueness of the product, and above all – Maria’s ‘’move mountains’’ mentality make me proud to work with her and confident that the company’s biggest successes are yet to happen.