Current financing round has brought a diversified international network on board
An Indo-Irish biotech startup CyGenica says the US$1.4 million raised in a seed fund investment round, led by global venture capital investor SOSV, will accelerate validation of its proprietary technology which enables safe, targeted, and affordable intercellular drug delivery.
CyGenica’s disruptive technology addresses the problem of delivering large-molecule therapeutics into living cells without damaging them or triggering an adverse immune response.
The current investment seed round of US$1.4 million was led by venture capital investor SOSV. Other investors participating in the round included the VOYAGER Health-Tech fund, David Rowan, founder of Voyagers.io, and angel investors Sharaf Yamani and Sami Mikati, said CyGenica in a release on 8 June 2021 from Pune.
CyGenica intends to utilize the investment to accelerate the development of its disruptive drug delivery technology for genome editing, seeking to be a key partner of biopharmaceutical companies in the advancement of cutting-edge therapeutics for cancer and rare diseases to improve patient’s health and quality of life.
Talking about the latest development Dr Nusrat Sanghamitra, Co-founder and CEO of CyGenica, said, “The challenge of delivering drugs for cancer and genetic therapies, be it genes/RNAs/CRISPRs across cell membranes without damaging the cells and triggering an adverse immune response remains a complex hurdle in the pharmaceutical industry. Our groundbreaking technology functions like a universal USB drive.
“It acts as a nanomachine which can deliver multitudes of cargoes carrying molecular information such as drugs and genetic therapeutics in an efficient, targeted manner without any toxicity and minimum immunogenicity. This will revolutionize drug delivery and lead to better patient outcomes.”
Nusrat further emphasized, “This current financing round has brought a diversified international network on board. This will help de-risk our technology, expand our leadership team and take us significantly closer to our goal of enabling safe and targeted intracellular delivery of genetic therapies for cancer and rare diseases.”
Bill Liao, Partner SOSV, explained, “I am delighted to be leading this investment because CyGenica has solved one of the most pressing problems in biotech: delivery. We are incredibly excited to be part of this revolution.”
David Rowan, Founder of Voyagers.io, added, “Life-changing healthcare innovation isn’t only coming out of the established life-science hubs. The VOYAGERS Health-Tech Fund is particularly excited to support CyGenica, a remarkable company born in Odisha, India, with the potential to transform targeted drug delivery without the normal side effects that cancer and other patients have had to bear. The VOYAGERS community will do all we can to support Dr Nusrat Sanghamitra and her team in their important mission.”
Sami Mikati, a life sciences angel investor, said, “Nusrat is solving for one of the most valuable problems in therapeutics today. Her approach is completely novel, which is a reflection of her interdisciplinary background.”
CyGenica is an Indo-Irish biotech startup developing world’s first molecular nanomachine for in-vitro and in-vivo delivery solutions for drugs and genetic therapies to help pharmaceutical companies solve the problem of the undesired ‘off target’ side effects, toxicity, and immunogenicity using proprietary unique intracellular delivery platform.
SOSV — The Accelerator VC — is an US$800 million venture fund operating global accelerator programs: HAX (Shenzhen/San Francisco) for hardware, IndieBio (San Francisco/NYC) for life sciences, Chinaccelerator (Shanghai), and MOX (Taipei) for cross-border internet, and dlab (NYC) for blockchain. SOSV invests in over 150 companies per year and over its two-decade history has a track record that puts it in the top 10% of VC funds in the world. #funding #investment #technology #health /fiinews.com
