• Orphazyme

  Participated · Series B · Mar 2017

  Orphazyme ApS is a Copenhagen, Denmark–based company focused on protein misfolding. The company has been raising capital through a Series B financing. It completed a second and final close of €14 million on March 10, 2017. That second close brought the Series B round's total to €34 million after a €20 million first close announced in January 2015. New investors in the second close included LSP and the ALS Investment Fund, alongside existing backers Kurma Partners, Idinvest Partners, Novo A/S (Hellerup, Denmark), Sunstone Capital and Aescap Venture. Orphazyme ApS is a Copenhagen, Denmark-based developer of novel therapeutics targeting rare and genetic diseases. Led by CEO Anders Hinsby, the company's lead program is in preclinical development as a treatment for lysosomal storage diseases. Lysosomal storage diseases comprise more than 45 genetic disorders, most of which are currently untreatable and often fatal. Financially, Orphazyme completed a €20m Series B financing and had previously raised more than €17m in seed and Series A rounds. Past financings include a €14m Series A (09/09/2011) and a DKK 22m seed round (27/03/2011). Orphazyme ApS is a Copenhagen, Denmark-based biopharmaceutical company developing medicines for a family of genetic lysosomal storage diseases. Its lead program, Orph-001, is a recombinant version of human HSP70 being developed to treat these disorders, which primarily affect children. The company intends to use the Series A proceeds to progress Orph-001 into clinical development. Orphazyme is led by CEO Anders Hinsby and is based on discoveries from the laboratory of Professor Marja Jäättela and Dr. Thomas Kirkegaard Jensen at the Danish Cancer Society. It has established collaborations with academic institutions in Europe and the USA. Financially, the company completed a €14m Series A to fund near-term clinical advancement of its lead program. Orphazyme is a Copenhagen-based company developing therapies for a family of lysosomal storage diseases. Its technology is based on discoveries from Professors Marja Jäättela and Thomas Kirkegaard Jensen at the Danish Cancer Society. The company is starting to prepare its lead project for clinical development and has established collaborations with top-tier academic institutions in Europe and the USA. Orphazyme was founded in 2009 and is led by CEO Anders Hinsby. Financially, the company completed a seed financing of DDK 22m to advance its programs.

• Avantium

  Participated · Equity · Jun 2014

  Avantium is an Amsterdam-based company specialising in sustainable chemistry technologies. It focuses on developing and commercialising technologies aimed at sustainability within the chemical industry. The company launched a €65M capital increase through a fully committed and underwritten rights offering. The financing is intended to extend Avantium's financial runway until it reaches EBITDA break-even in 2027. The rights offering is structured as a fully underwritten equity raise to secure operations through that break-even target. The article does not disclose participating investors or prior funding rounds. Avantium develops renewable and circular polymer materials. The company is Dutch and based in Amsterdam. It recently secured €10M and has reached a conditional agreement with its lenders to extend and amend its existing Senior Debt Financing Agreement. Avantium is planning an equity raise scheduled for September 2025. The near-term financing activity centers on amendments to its senior debt and a forthcoming equity round. No other financial metrics or investor names were disclosed in the article. Avantium is an Amsterdam-based innovative chemical technology company advancing the YXY technology to produce 100% biobased packaging material PEF (polyethylenefuranoate). Its core product is PEF, described as a next-generation plastic with superior performance. The company intends to commercialize the YXY technology and roll out a reference plant with capacity of up to 50,000 metric tons per year in Antwerp, Belgium. Avantium has signed a letter of intent with BASF to establish a joint venture for production and marketing of the renewable chemical building block FDCA and for marketing of PEF. That joint venture intends to use the YXY process technology and subsequently license the technology for industrial-scale applications. Avantium is led by CEO Tom van Aken and recently closed a financing to support commercialization efforts. Avantium develops and commercializes YXY, a technology platform that catalytically converts plant-based materials into biobased chemicals and bioplastics such as PEF. PEF is a novel 100% biobased polyester with enhanced barrier, thermal and mechanical properties over existing packaging materials. The company supplies its technology development partners with PEF manufactured from material produced at its pilot plant in Geleen. Avantium closed a €36m financing round to support its development. It intends to use the funds to advance PEF, complete industrial validation and finalize the engineering and design of its first commercial-scale plant. The company is planning a 50,000-ton commercial plant projected to be operational in 2017 to enable the full commercial launch of the first PEF bottles to consumers. Avantium produces catalytic-derived furanics — bio-materials made from sugars or non-food carbohydrate sources — that serve as chemical building blocks for industrial plastics, textiles and fuels. The company is developing a 100 percent plant-based, fully recyclable polyester and aims to make it cost-competitive with petroleum-based equivalents. Avantium uses a catalytic process to convert carbohydrates into furanics that can replace petroleum-derived feedstocks. The new funding is earmarked in part to complete and begin operating a production plant in Geleen, the Netherlands, which had been expected to be operational earlier. Financially, Avantium raised EUR 30 million (about $43.9 million), including a EUR 25 million financing tranche plus a EUR 5 million subsidy/innovation credit from the Dutch Ministry of Economy, Agriculture and Innovation. Part of the round was also used to buy out shares held by several prior investors.

• F-Star Therapeutics

  Participated · Series A · Oct 2013

  F-star Alpha was formed as an independent, asset-centric vehicle granted exclusive licences to a range of oncology assets from F-star, including FS102. Its core product, FS102, is an Fcab antibody fragment that induces apoptosis in HER2-positive cancer cells and has an associated predictive biomarker for patient selection. FS102 is advancing toward clinical testing in breast, gastric, and colorectal cancer, and the company holds licences to generate Fcabs or bispecific (mAb2™) antibodies against up to 22 additional oncology and immuno-oncology targets. The Series A funding of €9.4m will enable IND-enabling studies for FS102 and support discovery of novel immuno-oncology therapies aimed at activating patients’ immune systems. Under the licence terms, F-star will receive milestone payments and tiered royalties from F-star Alpha. The structure is intended to accelerate development of the licensed pipeline while creating commercial and financial flexibility for F-star, investors, and future partners. f-star develops a new generation of antibody-based products built on its Modular Antibody Technology platform. The company intends to use the funds to progress its product candidates into development and to maximise the platform's potential. It closed a €15m financing that brings total funding to date to €34.0m. Founded in 2006 and led by CEO Dr Kevin FitzGerald, f-star operates research sites in Vienna, Austria and Cambridge, UK. The company has 23 employees across its research sites. The financing will support advancement of its preclinical development programs and platform activities. f-star Biotechnologische Forschungs-und Entwicklungsges.m.b.H develops therapeutic antibodies and antibody fragments based on its "Modular Antibody Technology". The company is based in Vienna, Austria and Cambridge, UK. It raised an extended Series A to support its discovery and development work. The funds will be used to support drug discovery and development efforts. CEO Dr Kevin FitzGerald said the investment, coupled with a rapidly maturing technology and committed management and staff, provides a solid platform to create novel medicines and grow value.

• Biocartis

  Participated · Series C · Nov 2011

  Biocartis develops Idylla, a miniaturized, fully automated molecular system that integrates all molecular diagnostics steps and delivers results in 35–120 minutes; the system and its first assay have CE‑IVD marking. The company plans to use the new capital to fund the commercial roll-out of Idylla in Europe later this year and to expand commercial reach beyond Europe next year. Proceeds will also support and accelerate development of a broad assay menu across oncology, infectious diseases and other applications. With the EUR 64.5 million equity round, total capital invested in Biocartis to date amounts to EUR 240 million (approx. USD 316 million). Biocartis has separated its Evalution business unit and combined it with Pronota to form MyCartis, which will continue biomarker panel development in Ghent and maintain activities in Switzerland. The Evalution platform (previously DMAT) is positioned as a molecular biomarker multiplexing technology for clinical and pharmaceutical applications. Biocartis is developing the Idylla molecular diagnostics platform and a range of assays with an initial focus on oncology. It completed a EUR 30 million Series E equity fundraising to validate Idylla and its first assay and to continue assay development. The round was entirely subscribed by existing shareholders such as RMM (Rudi Mariën), Debiopharm Diagnostics SA, PMV Tina Fund, Valiance, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Philips, the Wellcome Trust, Petercam, the family offices of Dr. Paul Janssen, Luc Verelst, Rudi Pauwels, and some smaller shareholders including employees. Biocartis said the funding positions it to unroll an ambitious commercialization plan in 2014 and expects to launch the Idylla platform and a BRAF cancer assay in the second half of 2014. Idylla is described as a compact, scalable platform that allows assays to be performed anywhere without a specialist laboratory or trained technicians, rapidly detecting biomarkers with higher sensitivity than standard diagnostic assays and sequencing. Management signalled a goal of becoming a fully integrated global diagnostics company and will use the proceeds to advance validation, assay development, and commercial preparation. Biocartis develops clinically relevant molecular diagnostic tests and easy-to-use, fully automated platforms with a primary focus on oncology. The company will use a 1.9M subsidy from the Belgian Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) to accelerate a two-year project to develop new cancer assays. The planned tests will detect known, validated oncogenes and focus on skin, colon and lung cancers to enable more targeted treatment. Biocartis will also create assays that permit simultaneous detection of dozens of parameters for its recently launched multiplex detection platform aimed at the research market. Founded in 2007 and based at EPFL’s Innovation Square in Lausanne, the company has fully owned subsidiaries in Mechelen (Belgium) and Eindhoven (Netherlands). Biocartis employs over 150 people and has raised close to EUR 150 million in equity to date. Biocartis is a Lausanne, Switzerland-based molecular diagnostics company that develops and commercializes diagnostic platforms and clinically relevant oncology assays. Its core product effort includes the Apollo platform, which the company intends to validate, register and launch. The company plans to continue developing its oncology tests and to grow its commercial presence. Biocartis completed a €34.5m (approximately $45m, CHF 42m) Series D equity funding to support those efforts. As part of the financing, Roald Borré, representing the lead investor PMV, will join Biocartis’ board. The company is led by CEO Greg Parekh and chairman and founder Rudi Pauwels. Biocartis develops and commercializes compact molecular diagnostic systems and completed a €71m (US$100m) Series C equity financing. The company intends to use the funds to commercialize its first product and other diagnostic applications. Biocartis will launch its first system, Apollo, in 2013; Apollo was developed in close collaboration with Philips Corporate Technologies to enable personalized medicine and individual diagnoses. Apollo is a compact system that allows multiple assays to be performed anywhere, rapidly and without the need for a specialist laboratory environment or trained technicians. Founded in 2007 and based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Biocartis also operates a fully owned Belgian subsidiary in Mechelen and a Dutch subsidiary at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. Following the fundraise, the company plans to enlarge its Board and adjust its membership.

• i-Optics

  Participated · Equity · Nov 2010

  i-Optics is a The Hague–based company focused on development and marketing of highly innovative retina and cornea imaging systems. Its first product, the EasyScan retinal imaging system, is designed for screening and early diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases such as AMD and glaucoma. The company plans to launch EasyScan in key European markets in early 2010 and to prepare for further international expansion into the US and emerging markets in the second half of the following year. i-Optics has a broader pipeline including the Cassini corneal topographer, based on color‑coded topography, which is intended to improve diagnosis for contact lens fitting, corneal transplant and LASIK surgery and is planned for launch in 2011. Founded in 2003, the company recently closed a €4.2m third financing round. The new capital and leadership changes are intended to support these product launches and international expansion.

No current team members are available.