GlycoEra: CHF 45 Million financing to develop novel biologics

GlycoEra AG announced today the close of a CHF 45 million ($49 million) Series A financing round, co-led by renowned US and European life science investors, 5AM Ventures, Roche Venture Fund and Sofinnova Partners. LimmaTech Biologics AG, from which GlycoEra was spun-out, also participated in this round. The proceeds will be used to support the growth of the company and to demonstrate the breadth and value of its CustomGlycan Platform technology in developing assets that can unlock unique biological activities for therapeutic targets in several disease indications.

In conjunction with the financing round, Mira Chaurushiya (5AM Ventures), Monique Schiersing (Roche Venture Fund) and Graziano Seghezzi (Sofinnova Partners) will join the company’s Board of Directors that is comprised of GlycoEra’s co-founders, Veronica Gambillara Fonck and Amir Faridmoayer, as well as biotech advisor and strategist, Ganesh Kaundinya.

“The size and interest for this round and the international investor syndicate we have garnered are a significant validation of the potential of GlycoEra’s CustomGlycan platform,” said Veronica Gambillara Fonck, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of GlycoEra. “This is a major milestone for our company, which has been made possible by the foundational work from our Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder, Amir Faridmoayer, and the entire GlycoEra team. I look forward to this new stage of our corporate development and to demonstrating the value of our technology in producing therapeutics that previously were not possible.”

Mira Chaurushiya, Partner at 5AM Ventures, said: “We believe GlycoEra’s world-class team has developed a platform that is a step change for the fields of biologics and glycosylation. The platform uniquely enables the translation of glycobiology into meaningful therapeutics via diverse mechanisms and for a wide range of diseases.”

Graziano Seghezzi, Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, said: “Backing teams is a core part of the Sofinnova strategy, so we are delighted to be working, once again, with a group of veterans who were instrumental in the success of another Sofinnova portfolio company, GlycoVaxyn. In addition, this is a top-notch investor syndicate with whom we have invested in the past. We have enormous confidence in GlycoEra’s potential to carry its groundbreaking technology forward into multiple therapeutic areas.”