In this interview, the CANTREAT founding team shares insights into their vision, the challenges of a rapidly growing shareholder structure and how they handle increasing corporate governance complexity. They explain why administrative processes can quickly become a bottleneck—and how Konsento helps create clarity, save time and elevate governance standards.
CANTREAT – A Revolution in Cancer Treatment
CANTREAT AG is a Swiss MedTech startup aiming to make cancer treatment more precise, more effective and better tolerated through magnetically controlled nanoparticles. At the same time, the company has grown rapidly within a short period—now with more than 120 shareholders and a corresponding increase in complexity in corporate governance.
To reduce the administrative burden around share registers, general meetings and corporate actions, CANTREAT relies on Konsento. The platform ensures clear, efficient and legally compliant processes in the background—creating the necessary freedom to focus on what truly matters: research, development and growth.
In the full case study, you can learn how CANTREAT uses Konsento in practice and what results the company has achieved.
The Founders and Their Vision
Who are you as a founding team, and what personally motivated you to start CANTREAT?
“We are three founders with very different but perfectly complementary backgrounds. I, Thomas Steinmüller, bring many years of experience in corporate management and strategic business development, including at BMW Group, Swarovski and General Electric.
Dietmar Hold, our CCO, is an expert in investor relations and corporate communications, has supported the founding and growth of several companies, and has also worked as an International Business Development Manager.
Michael Forster, our CTO, is a mechanical engineer with over 25 years of experience in product development and is responsible for all research and technical development at CANTREAT. Michael and I both bring hands-on experience in building companies—a combination that significantly strengthens our execution.
What unites all three of us? A deep conviction that cancer therapy can be better—for patients, not just against the disease. What personally drove me was a question I kept asking myself: why do people who are already fighting have to suffer so much from the treatment itself? That question brought us together—and still drives us today.”
How would you explain CANTREAT to someone who doesn’t know you yet—what makes your approach different from existing cancer therapies?
“Imagine you could deliver a drug exactly where it is needed—into the tumor—without affecting the rest of the body. That’s exactly what CANTREAT does. We use magnetically controlled nanoparticles to which already approved cancer drugs are attached. These particles are injected directly into the tumor and precisely fixed there. The tumor absorbs the drug while healthy tissue is largely preserved. That’s the key difference.”
What medical vision are you pursuing with your technology, and what specific problem are you solving for patients?
“Our vision is clear: treat cancer in a targeted way—while remaining gentle on life. It sounds simple, but it’s revolutionary. Today, millions of cancer patients suffer not only from the disease itself, but also from the severe side effects of therapy. Hair loss, nausea, organ damage—all of this happens because chemotherapy affects the entire body.
We want to change that. With CANTREAT, the drug should only act where it is needed. That means fewer side effects, better tolerability—and potentially higher chances of recovery.”
Why did you deliberately choose to optimize the use of existing chemotherapeutics instead of developing new drugs?
“This is a very conscious strategic decision. Developing a new drug often takes 15 to 20 years and costs millions—with uncertain outcomes. We asked ourselves: why not use what already works and is approved?
Up to 90% of all available cytostatics can be used with our technology—including many that were previously hardly applicable due to severe side effects. We make existing drugs more usable, not obsolete. That’s more efficient, faster—and above all, faster for patients.”
Where does CANTREAT stand today in research and development, and what are the key milestones ahead?
“We have developed our technology on a solid scientific basis and are working intensively to bring it to clinical readiness. CANTREAT is designed as a medical device—which gives us a clearly defined regulatory pathway.
The next key milestones are further animal studies, the expansion of research partnerships, entry into clinical trials—and ultimately regulatory approval. Each of these steps brings us closer to our goal: a new era of cancer therapy—precise, effective and well tolerated.”
Growth, Organization and Operational Challenges
Your shareholder structure has grown rapidly. What organizational impact has this had?
“The growth of our shareholder structure is a sign of trust in our technology—but it also brings a new level of responsibility. Suddenly, it’s not just about the product and research anymore, but also about formal processes: who is a shareholder? Who has which rights? How do we communicate transparently and in a legally compliant way?
These are questions we initially underestimated. We had to learn very quickly how to run a company not only technically and scientifically, but also organizationally and from a corporate governance perspective.”
What challenges arise for a research-driven startup when many shareholders, participations and formal decisions come into play?
“The real challenge lies in the tension between speed and formality. In research, we think in hypotheses, experiments and results—it’s iterative and dynamic. Corporate processes work differently: they require precision, documentation and adherence to clear deadlines.
When both run in parallel, you need clear structures—otherwise you either lose time in your core business or risk formal mistakes that can become costly later.”
How did you initially assess the management of shares and resolutions—and what surprised you in practice?
“To be honest, we underestimated it at the beginning. You think: a resolution is quickly passed, a share register quickly maintained. At first, we actually handled everything ourselves using Excel and Word—and it worked.
But once we had more than ten shareholders, complexity increased significantly—and with it the risk of errors. The reality is different from what you expect: administrative effort grows with every new investor, every participation, every funding round.
What really surprised us was the sheer amount of documentation, coordination and tracking involved—and how quickly it becomes a bottleneck if not structured properly. Introducing Konsento solved this perfectly. It was a real turning point for us.”
“The growth of our shareholder structure is a sign of trust in our technology—but it also brings a new level of responsibility. We had to quickly learn how to manage a company not only from a technical and scientific perspective, but also from an organizational and corporate governance standpoint.” Michael Forster
Was there a moment when it became clear that corporate actions were taking too much time away from your core business?
“Yes. It was the moment we realized we were spending more time preparing general meetings, maintaining the share register and coordinating resolutions than on what we founded CANTREAT for: developing our technology.
That was a wake-up call. We knew that if we didn’t find a solution, it would come at the expense of our research and our patients—or we would have to hire someone just to handle this. Which would have created additional costs, potentially worse than the problem itself.”
What mattered most to you: legal certainty, speed, cost control or relieving the founding team?
“All four matter—but if I’m honest, relieving the founding team was the key factor. We are scientists, developers and entrepreneurs—not lawyers or administrative specialists.
We need a solution we can trust: legally sound, fast to execute and without forcing us to get lost in details that others can handle more efficiently. Legal certainty is non-negotiable—but it has to work in the background so we can perform in the foreground.”
Using Konsento and the Concrete Benefits
“For me personally, it’s the time savings and the clarity—I always know who the shareholders are, which resolutions have been passed and what comes next. For CANTREAT as a company, it’s about legal certainty and cost efficiency: we have significantly reduced external legal and notary costs while improving the quality of our corporate governance. That’s a real competitive advantage—especially when dealing with professional investors who look closely.” Dietmar Hold
How did you discover Konsento, and what convinced you to choose it over traditional advisory solutions?
“As with many things in startup life, it was a combination of recommendation and timing. We came across Konsento through our network—and the more we looked into it, the clearer it became: this is exactly what we need.
What convinced us was the combination of legal certainty and simplicity. Traditional advisory solutions mean: call, email, wait, invoice. Konsento means: start the process, follow the steps, done. For a research-driven startup like CANTREAT, that’s a huge difference.”
Which processes do you currently manage with Konsento, and how has this changed your approach to corporate actions?
“We mainly use Konsento for the digital share register and the organization of our general meetings. What has changed? The entire approach has become calmer.
For example, at our last general meeting, all agenda items were formally correct and available to all participants on time. Voting was structured, and everything was properly documented and fully traceable.
Previously, this required significant manual effort—preparing documents, tracking deadlines, coordinating stakeholders. Today, it all runs through one platform—structured, transparent and legally compliant. That gives us a level of confidence we didn’t have before.”
What does it mean for you as non-lawyers to handle corporate matters through software instead of lawyers?
“Above all, it means autonomy. We’re not lawyers—but with Konsento, we don’t need to be. The platform guides us through each step, explains what is required and why, and ensures everything is legally compliant.
That doesn’t mean we no longer need lawyers—but many questions that previously required external advice can now be handled independently and with confidence.”
What concrete benefits do you gain from Konsento today—for you personally and for the company?
“For me personally, it’s the time savings and the clarity. I always know who the shareholders are, which resolutions have been passed and what comes next—without searching through spreadsheets or emails.
For CANTREAT as a company, it’s legal certainty and cost efficiency. We have significantly reduced external legal and notary costs while improving the quality of our corporate governance.
That’s a real competitive advantage—especially when dealing with professional investors who look closely.”
“If we can rely on Konsento running smoothly in the background, we can focus on what truly matters in the foreground: advancing our technology—and ultimately improving outcomes for cancer patients.” - Dietmar Hold
Looking ahead: what do you expect from Konsento as you continue to grow?
“Our wish is simple: that Konsento grows with us. CANTREAT will go through further financing rounds in the coming years, the shareholder structure will become more complex, and regulatory requirements will increase.
We need a platform that can handle this—scalable, as intuitive as it is today, and always aligned with Swiss corporate law. If we can rely on Konsento in the background, we can focus in the foreground on what truly matters: advancing our technology—and ultimately improving outcomes for cancer patients.”