Emergence Therapeutics raises 87 million euros

As things stand, this makes the start-up's Series A financing the largest of the year in Germany.

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

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

"The completion of 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 ETx-22 "could provide a revolutionary next-generation treatment for a broad range of cancers with high unmet need."