ikarovec

🆕 With a seed round totalling £8m, our lead #bicistronic gene therapy targeting geographic atrophy is continuing advanced preclinical development. ➡ LifeArc Ventures and Parkwalk Advisors led the £5m extension with UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund also participating, encouraged by the robust and differentiated data in disease models. ➡ Jean-Philippe Combal of Vivet Therapeutics and SpliceBio, who's a leader in ophthalmic product development & gene therapy, joins us as NED. We're delighted to have his expertise on board. Catch up on the press release here➡ https://lnkd.in/eiQT3cJU #genetherapy #AMD #geographicatrophy #GA #ophthalmology #ESGCT2024 European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy

It's great to be working with you UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund!

👁David Guyer brings his world-leading medical and industry experience in #ophthalmology to ikarovec as we develop novel #bicistronic gene therapies for major eye diseases. 👁 Our Chairman brought the first anti-VEGF drug for retinal diseases to the market, has founded three successfully acquired ophthalmology companies (EyeBio, Iveric Bio, An Astellas Company and #Eyetech) and led the Ophthalmology Department at New York University Medical School. 👁 His expertise is invaluable as ikarovec develops its pipeline, including its lead programme in geographic atrophy which is in advanced preclinical studies. Catch up on our recent fundraising news here➡ https://lnkd.in/eiQT3cJU #genetherapy #AMD #geographicatrophy #GA #ophthalmology LifeArc Ventures Parkwalk Advisors UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund

Norwich-based ikarovec , which is developing novel bicistronic gene therapies for chronic eye diseases, has extended its seed funding round by £5 million, taking the total raised to £8m. The financing was led by existing investors LifeArc Ventures and Parkwalk Advisors, with UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital) also participating. The company is moving towards IND-enabling studies for its lead programme, IKC159V, in geographic atrophy (GA), which causes major sight loss in millions of people globally. The funds will enable the company to continue advanced preclinical studies with IKC159V, a novel bicistronic gene therapy that secretes two clinically relevant proteins that reduce overall oxidative stress and inflammation, key hallmarks of GA, in one injection. CSO Dr Katie Binley said: “We’re excited by the progress we’ve made with our lead programme for geographic atrophy and are advancing it towards the clinic as quickly as possible. Ikarovec would like to thank its investors for their continued support to enable us to do this and to advance our pipeline of gene therapies for major eye diseases.” Chairman Dr David Guyer added: “Ikarovec’s approach of expressing clinically relevant and synergistically acting proteins via bicistronic vectors differentiates it in the ophthalmic gene therapy area. “The company is grateful for the ongoing recognition of its potential by LifeArc Ventures, Parkwalk Advisors and UKI2S as we develop important new products for devastating eye conditions.” Ikarovec has appointed Dr Jean-Philippe Combal, CEO of Vivet Therapeutics to its board as a Non-Executive Director. He brings extensive experience in both ophthalmic product development and gene therapy. Full article – https://lnkd.in/e_xtntrA

🌟 Exciting News from Stockholm! 🌟 Ikarovec has been presented with a runner up prize by the judges of Merck’s EMEA Advance Biotech Grant after CSO, Katie Binley, gave a 5 minute presentation at BioEurope, Stockholm alongside the 4 other finalists! 🎉 The Ikarovec team is looking forward to working with the Merck Group to utilise this award to help advance their lead AAV gene therapy for the treatment of Geographic Atrophy (GA) Our congratulations go to Fuse Vectors (overall winner), Theriva Biologics, Inc. (other runner up) and finalists GlyProVac and GENE VECTOR #AdvanceBiotechGrant #BioEurope2024 #Biotechnology

Here’s a roundup of the latest 20 Biotech and Food Tech companies that have secured funding this October, with many actively hiring! 🇺🇸🧠 Seaport Therapeutics (Boston) – Closed an oversubscribed $225M Series B to advance neuropsychiatric medicines with a leading team and proven strategy. 🇺🇸🧬  Terray Therapeutics (Los Angeles) – Raised $120M in Series B funding for advancing small molecule drug development through AI. Funds will drive its tNova AI platform and progress internal immunology programs to the clinic. 🇬🇧🥤 Bioniq (London) – Secured an $82M valuation with new investment, championed by Cristiano Ronaldo 🇵🇹 ⚽ to personalize supplement recommendations based on health data. 🇫🇮🌱 Finnish Alternative Protein R&D (Finland): €10M has been secured from Business Finland for a 3-year collaboration involving VTT, the University of Helsinki, Fazer, Valio, MeEat Food Tech Oy, Enifer, and Onego Bio, focusing on sustainable production and circular economy in protein alternatives. 🇺🇸🍫 Voyage Foods (Oakland) – Preparing a 284,000 sq ft facility in Mason, Ohio to produce cocoa-free chocolate, nut-free spreads, and bean-free coffee. Expected to open in January 2025, this factory will have an annual capacity of 10,000 metric tons. 🇺🇸🧫 AvenCell Tx – Secured $112M in Series B to continue its cell therapy programs, focusing on autologous and allogeneic switchable CAR-T therapies. 🇺🇸🧬  Be Biopharma – Raised $82M to advance BE-101 through clinical proof of concept, progress BE-102, and transition to clinical stage. 🇬🇧🔬 Nuclera (Cambridge, UK) – Completed a $75M round (approx. £57M) to expedite development of its benchtop protein expression and purification system. 🇧🇪🇦🇹🌱 Revo Foods & Paleo – Austrian 3D-printed vegan seafood innovator Revo Foods and Belgian precision fermentation company Paleo have joined forces to create realistic, sustainable seafood alternatives. 🇺🇸🍯 MeliBio – Received strategic investment from Future Food Fund, part of Japanese food distributor Oisix, to expand its bee-free honey made using plant science and precision fermentation. 🇬🇧💉 ikarovec (Norwich, UK) – Secured a £5M seed extension to advance its bicistronic gene therapies for major chronic eye diseases. 🇬🇧🧈 MicroLub (University of Leeds) – Raised £3.5M to commercialize its fat-replacement technology, creating healthier and delicious low-calorie plant-based foods. 🇦🇺🐛 Viridian Renewable Technology Pty Ltd Technology – Secured $2.4M from Breakthrough Victoria to increase sustainable insect protein production and scale factory capacity, creating new jobs. 🇺🇸💧 Hydrosome Labs LLC Labs – Closed a $3.7M seed funding round to expand its work in ultrafine bubbles, enhancing operations and sales. 🇺🇸🧪 IN8bio – Announced $12.4M to support expansion of the Phase 1 trial of INB-100 for AML, funding operations into 2026. ➕ Connect with me to see how the Seal platform is helping life-changing companies go to market faster!

🎉 Congratulations to our fellow Conexer, Katie Binley and team at ikarovec for raising £8m for their lead #bicistronic gene therapy targeting geographic atrophy. 👇

💲 𝐂𝐆𝐓 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞! 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝? 💲 The past few days have seen a flurry of funding and a hefty partnership announced to add to some awesome news in October so far, reinforcing the trend I highlighted in a previous post... the floodgates are gradually opening. 𝑆𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑? 🧬 ikarovec raised an additional £5M in its seed round, bringing total funding to £8M, to advance its gene therapy program for geographic atrophy. 🦠 AvenCell raised $112M in Series B funding to advance their switchable CAR-T cell therapy platform for treating hematologic cancers and autoimmune diseases. 🦠 Be Biopharma raised $82 million to support the clinical proof of concept for BE-101 and the ongoing development of BE-102.. 🦠 March Biosciences closed a $28.4 million Series A round to advance its lead CD5 CAR-T therapy, MB-105, for T-cell lymphoma. 🧬 Roche partnered with Dyno Therapeutics in a deal worth over $1 billion to improve gene therapy delivery for challenging targets, especially neurological diseases. Although it's been a turbulent year, I firmly believe we are starting to see signs of the pendulum beginning to swing in the other direction for 2025. 𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑑𝑜 𝐼 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡? 👉 Interest rates are falling across the EU and US, encouraging new investment. 👉 Greater political stability post-election year across western markets, offering investors more market stability. 👉 An expansion of specialized service companies, providing biotechs more options to outsource and lower development costs. 👉 Innovative tech emerging to streamline and reduce development costs further, enhancing scalability and accelerating timelines for these complex therapies. 👉 Game-changing stories continuing to be released. This year alone has seen CGTs restore a patients ability to make insulin, send autoimmune patients into remission and restore hearing for an 11-year old boy to name a few off the top of my head. Q4 is already off to a strong start and although it will take time, I think we're seeing a conglomerate of factors showing that this industry is on its way to greener pastures. 𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒? #mCGT #ATMP #advancedtherapies #funding

The UK 🇬🇧 and Germany 🇩🇪 had another great week with raises for female founders and their teams! 🙌 This weeks #Hypecorner was dominated by the UK and Germany for raises, each with 4 a piece. We saw rounds across Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A and varied across the board in terms of sector. 👏 Congratulations to all of these founders and their teams on fuelling their growth with fresh new funding: 🇬🇧 Ama Larbi-Siaw Co-founder of Aya Data 🇪🇸 Clara Herrera Santos Co-founder, CEO & CFO of Zexel 🇬🇧 Nina Briance Founder & CEO of CULT MIA 🇬🇧 Venetia Archer Founder & CEO of Ruuby 🇫🇷 Sandra Jernström Co-founder & CSO of Okomera 🇩🇪 Barbara Bachus Co-founder of ExoMatter 🇧🇪 An Van Den Bulcke Co-founder & Chief Business Officer of 4Tissue 🇩🇪 Vivian Loftin & Anna Zießow Co-founders of Recyda GmbH 🇪🇸 Joana Rafael Co-founder & COO of Sensei 🇩🇪 Sophie Peter Co-founder of autarkize 🇬🇧 Katie Binley Chief Scientific Officer of ikarovec 🇩🇪 Jennifer Phan Co-founder & CEO of Passionfroot ☀ Have a wonderful weekend everyone! ☀ _____________________________________________________________ 👋 Hi, I'm Jen, Fractional CMO and fundraising advisor 🙌 Hype-woman for female founders through Unstoppable 📩 Building something EPIC? Get in touch, I'd love to help! #femalefounder #founder #startup #femalefounder #unstoppable #fundher #growth #scale #VC #investment #fundraising #newsletter #womenintech #womeninvc #womeninleadership #SaaS #biotech #fintech #AI #climatetech #femtech