The Venture Codex

Led · Equity · Feb 2020

Univercells is a B2B bioprocessing company that develops compact, cost-efficient manufacturing technologies including the NevoLine biomanufacturing platform and the scale-X bioreactor portfolio. The company designs its solutions to reduce footprint, capital and operational expenditures for producing biologics and viral products. With support from stakeholders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Global Health Investment Fund and the European Investment Bank, Univercells aims to increase global access to affordable vaccines, biosimilars and advanced therapies. The new financing will be used to industrialize and commercialize its manufacturing technologies and to drive product and application development. Univercells plans to expand further into the gene therapy segment, enabling best-in-class solutions for viral manufacturing. The company is headquartered in Gosselies, Belgium. Univercells develops compact biomanufacturing platforms aimed at increasing the availability and affordability of biologics, including recombinant proteins and vaccines. Founded in 2013 by Hugues Bultot (CEO) and José Castillo (CTO) and based in Gosselies, Belgium, the company builds technology solutions for vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and enzyme replacement therapies. It intends to commercialize a diversified portfolio of technologies with first products available for human use as soon as 2019. Univercells is concluding technology transfer negotiations with established biologics manufacturers and healthcare providers in China, India and Latin America. The company has received regional support from the Walloon region and prior financing including a €3m seed from Takeda in 2015 and a $16m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at the end of 2016. Univercells is a Gosselies, Belgium-based technology company that develops innovative and cost-effective biomanufacturing solutions. The company designs novel production processes for biologics, including recombinant proteins and vaccines, to significantly decrease the size of required equipment and facilities and lower capital and operational costs. It was founded in 2013 by Hugues Bultot (CEO) and José Castillo (CTO). Univercells will use a €2.4M grant from the Walloon Region to develop its antibody production platform. The program focuses on designing next-generation production technologies to drastically reduce manufacturing costs while producing large quantities. The resulting low-footprint, high-capacity production units are intended to be more affordable to build and operate, improving worldwide access to high-quality biologics. Univercells, founded in 2013 and based in Gosselies, Belgium, develops novel biomanufacturing platforms for recombinant proteins and vaccines. Its core products include a viral micro-facility and an innovative recombinant production platform. The company aims to increase the availability and affordability of biologics through these technologies. Univercells closed a €3m Series A equity round to fund commercial and development activities. Proceeds will support the commercial roll-out of its viral micro-facility and the completion of its recombinant platform. A first technology transfer for the viral micro-facility is anticipated in Q4 2018 within a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-supported program. Univercells is a Gosselies, Belgium-based developer of a vaccine manufacturing platform that leverages manufacturing sciences to design biomanufacturing solutions for viral vaccines and recombinant proteins. The company focuses on process intensification and integration technologies to enable local bioproduction facilities. It will use a $12M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a vaccine manufacturing platform aimed at lowering costs and increasing vaccine availability and affordability in developing countries. The development will be performed by a consortium including Batavia Biosciences and Natrix Separations, combining Univercells' process intensification and integration capabilities, Natrix's single-use chromatography membrane platform, and Batavia's vaccine development and manufacturing capabilities. The initial target is a micro-facility for inactivated polio vaccine (sIPV) capable of producing 40 million trivalent doses per year at a manufacturing cost below $0.15 per dose. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Hugues Bultot and CTO and co-founder José Castillo.