VALANX Biotech, a synthetic biology company headquartered in Austria, has revealed the successful acquisition of €2.3 million in a growth funding round.
In 2020, VALANX secured a six-figure seed investment through a syndicate that included IST cube, tecnet equity, and SOSV.
The company has recently raised additional growth funding, encompassing both equity and public funding. SkyGene from Lower Austria spearheaded the latest funding round, with participation from existing investors Xista Science Ventures (formerly IST cube), tecnet equity, and SOSV.
Ingo Nagler of SkyGene remarked, “We observe a rapidly growing demand for a straightforward yet highly precise technology platform dedicated to protein conjugation and the advancement of new click chemistry methods for delivering intricate biotherapeutics.”
“The VALANX team’s endeavors, facilitated by the inventive utilization of a patented synthetic amino acid and modern CRISPR strategies, along with the initial achievements in developing their proprietary Interleukin-2 conjugate, were the primary factors motivating our investment.”
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Funding Usage
VALANX intends to allocate the funds towards advancing its protein conjugation platform, which is anticipated to find extensive applications in drug development, diagnostics, and biosensor technology.
Michael Lukesch, the founder of VALANX, elaborates, “Since our establishment in 2017, we have been dedicated to developing a technology that can expedite and enhance the production of protein drugs for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.”
“Our approach allows for precise definition of the molecular composition of protein conjugates, offering significant advantages in terms of both production efficiency and drug safety.”
Lukesch further emphasizes, “Now, we aim to bolster our team, further refine our groundbreaking protein conjugation technology, and strengthen our collaborations with industrial partners.”
Enhancing the Capabilities of Proteins
Founded in 2017, VALANX Biotech emerged as a spin-off from Graz University of Technology, leveraging intellectual property stemming from the doctoral research of its founder, Michael Lukesch.
Operating from Klosterneuburg, Austria, VALANX Biotech is a pharmaceutical company that specializes in the precise production of protein-drug conjugates. The core focus of the company revolves around the exploration and advancement of protein expression systems that enable the incorporation of synthetic amino acids at customizable positions within proteins.
Through the application of click chemistry, VALANX seamlessly melds modified proteins with other molecular components. This synthetic biology approach offers innovative solutions to the challenges encountered in drug development, presenting novel possibilities for the pharmaceutical industry and beyond.
