Emergence Therapeutics raises 87 million euros

This makes the start-up's Series A financing the largest of the year in Germany to date.

The Duisburg-based start-up Emergence Therapeutics AG has raised over 87 million euros from a Series A financing round. It is the largest first-round financing of the year in Germany up to the beginning of December. The round was led by Pontifax Venture Capital from Israel. The investment firms RA Capital Management, OrbiMed Advisors, Surveyor Capital (part of Citadel) and Hadean Ventures were new additions. The existing investors Kurma Partners, NRW.BANK, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Gründerfonds Ruhr and Bpifrance were once again involved.

The biopharmaceutical company is dedicated to the targeted fight against tumors. More precisely it develops novel antibody drug conjugates (ADC) for the treatment of cancer. The start-up intends to use the money from the financing round to advance the antibody drug conjugate ETx-22, the company's most important product, to clinical proof of concept. ETx-22 is initially being developed for bladder and triple-negative breast cancer as well as ovarian, head, neck and lung cancer.

"Closing this significantly oversubscribed round enables Emergence to execute on its strategy to become a dominant ADC developer," said Jack Elands, CEO of Emergence Therapeutics. "The ADC space has evolved significantly over the past decade and our approach of combining proprietary technologies with clinically validated targets should enable us to develop breakthrough cancer drugs." Ohad Hammer, Partner at Pontifax Venture Capital, believes that ETx-22 "could provide a revolutionary next-generation treatment for a broad range of cancers with high unmet need."