100+ Early-Stage Cell and Gene Therapy Startups from Europe
From just founded to Series A
Introduction
Hi, and welcome to my first post!
This is a list of early-stage cell and gene therapy-related startups based in or founded in Europe. I created this list as part of my research on the business models of European CGT startups. If you are part of one of the startups from the list or know someone there, please reach out! I would love to talk.
The list is categorized based on the following funding stages: 1) Pre-Seed, 2) Seed, 3) Series A, and 4) Unknown funding but early stage. Within each stage, the companies are sorted alphabetically.
In case you are curious, here is a breakdown of the average total amount of funding at each stage:
Pre-Seed - Median: €1M | Mean: €1.98M
Seed - Median: €3.75M | Mean: €5.10M
Series A - Median: €27.6M | Mean: €37.39M
These numbers are based on the publicly disclosed amounts by startups on this list. They are only rough estimates and likely underestimate the real amounts substantially, as not all startups disclose early rounds. Thus, some funding may be missing in the estimated numbers for each startup. Furthermore, many startups have not disclosed their funding and are not factored into the calculation, making the data set incomplete.
Let me know if I missed your startup, and I will add it to the list.
There is also an Excel sheet with the raw data. If you are interested, contact me via LinkedIn or email, and I will happily share it with you.
The List
Pre-Seed
Founded: 2020
Funding: €1.6M
Description: aCGT Vector are a “Point of Care” Cellular Therapy Company, delivering precision medicines across a multiple hospital-based ATMP (Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product) GMP licensed facility network.
Founded: 2019
Description: Autolomous is an biotechnology company engaged in manufacturing pragmatic digital solutions for cell and gene therapy: Pragmatic software solutions for Advanced Therapy manufacturers.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €0.5M
Description: BOOST Pharma develops a stem cell therapy for the treatment of osteogenesis imperfect.
BioStudio @ BII: Professor Morten Otto Alexander Sommer
Founded: 2023
Description: We are making microbial cell therapies producing the neuroactive compounds in situ of the gut to treat diseases of the central nervous system.
BioStudio @ BII: Professor Thomas Lars Andresen
Founded: 2023
Description: Our aim is to develop a technology platform for localized gene therapy where the first technological objective is to generate a transfection system for pro-inflammatory cytokines that uses the cellular machinery within tumors to generate the cytokine in situ over a defined period of time.
Founded: 2020
Description: CapCo Bio´s Nanocapsules are the state-of-the-art nanocarriers platform for safe, efficient, and intracellular drug and gene delivery. The range comprises simple transfection up to challenging techniques, including theragnostic, nanomedicine, as well as cell and gene therapy.
Founded: 2021
Description: CellVoyant is an AI-first biotechnology company with a mission to create novel stem cell-based therapies for chronic diseases.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €2.1M
Description: Exogene is a techbio startup using deep learning to unlock the discovery of innovative TCR-based therapies for cancer treatment.
Founded: 2023
Funding: €0.5M
Description: Viral vector-based gene therapies are the frontier of modern medicine and hold the promise to cure genetic illnesses through single-dose treatments. Manufacturing these complex products is highly challenging and is a major bottleneck of bringing these life-saving therapies to patients. Solving this manufacturing challenge is our core focus.
Founded: 2021
Funding: €0.1M
Description: Implantable autologous breast tissue for post mastectomy reconstruction as well as implantable tissue for cell therapy “delivery” pave the way towards future implants with full organ function.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €8M
Description: Limula provides an innovative solution for the production of the most personalised cancer treatments on demand and at scale. Our product is a unique proprietary platform can perform multiple steps of cell therapy manufacturing in a single device, using end-to-end automation and integrated process analytics.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €4M
Description: MIDA Biotech is creating an innovation platform to develop game challenging stem cell therapies.
Founded: 2022
Funding: €1.3M
Description: MyoPax creates advanced regenerative stem cell therapies to combat the devasting effects of muscle illnesses.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €0.325M
Description: Cell therapy technology against neuroinflammation across the board.
Founded: 2021
Funding: €1M
Description: SEAL Therapeutics is developing its proprietary SEAL technology as a potential gene therapy for laminin-α2 deficient congenital muscular dystrophy (LAMA2 MD).
Seed
Founded: 2022
Funding: €1.7M
Description: Two state-of-the-art methods to manufacture retinal and cardiac cell therapeutic products.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €5.7M
Description: Alia Therapeutics is developing next-generation gene-editing medicines to cure rare genetic diseases.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €6M
Description: Asgard is pioneering gene therapy approaches with the proprietary lead program AT-108, designed to set in motion immune responses mediated by the biological properties of professional antigen presenting cells. Designed as an off-the-shelf gene therapy, Asgard´s approach overcomes many of the logistic and manufacturing hurdles of conventional cell-based therapies.
Founded: 2016
Funding: €18.5M
Description: Modular, microfluidic cell foundries that transform cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing: Astraveus is revolutionizing the field of CGT manufacturing with the Lakhesys™ platform, an end-to-end, cell foundry, that uses deep process optimization and single-use, microfluidic bioprocessors to deliver better results with reduced inputs. By removing the need for large-scale infrastructure, reducing costs, and overcoming the logistical challenges typically associated with CGT manufacturing, Astraveus is seeking to transform patient access to these life-changing therapies.
Founded: 2017
Funding: €1.7M
Description: The Atelerix technology provides an innovative solution for storing and transporting cells and tissues at room temperature. Our products consistently deliver viable, functional cells in a range of user-friendly formats.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €3M
Description: Avrion's first clinical candidate gene therapy product, AVR-001, is preparing to enter IND-enabling studies to treat patients with a form of the fatal motor neuron disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - ALS or MND), linked to aberrations of the protein Superoxide Dismutase 1 - SOD1.
Founded: 2022
Funding: €5M
Description: Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies develops curative treatments for rare neurological and metabolic diseases using gene therapy technologies.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €1.5M
Description: We’re committed to bringing the regenerative power of Blue Cells to patients with chronic diseases, starting with erectile dysfunction. We are developing ‘over the counter’ allogenic treatments.
Founded: 2020
Description: Borea Therapeutics has developed a gene therapy platform where viral vectors derived from adeno-associated virus (AAV) are chemically modified to strategically alter their tropism so that they target only desired cells and tissues in vivo. Our modified vectors thus operate around two key principles: increased selectivity and reduced dose requirement.
Founded: 2014
Funding: €5.5M
Description: Brenus Pharma is an allogeneic platform to generate immune therapy ambitioning to harness patient immune system & prevent cancer resistance.
Founded: 2018
Description: “Off-the-shelf” highly effective and safe stem cell products for the treatment of patients with a wide range of diseases. Cell2Cure is developing stem cell products, that are applied in promising new therapeutic concepts for treatment of several diseases. Pre-clinical studies and clinical phase I and II trials have demonstrated that our stem cell product can be used for treatment of heart diseases and tissue regeneration.
Founded: 2015
Description: Implantable autologous breast tissue for post mastectomy reconstruction as well as implantable tissue for cell therapy “delivery” pave the way towards future implants with full organ function.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €2.8M
Description: CellRev is a biotechnology company focused on process intensification within cell manufacturing applications, including cell therapy.
Founded: 2020
Description: At coding.bio, we use an AI-first approach to design new CARs, combined with our high-throughput screening platform to discover best-in-class CARs to power the cell therapy revolution.
Founded: 2021
Description: Developing a new generation of cryoprotectants for the medicines discovery, diagnostics and cell-therapy industries. Our proprietary technology transforms how cells are stored and transported frozen; delivering viable cells and cell therapies in the format users want, any time they want them.
Founded: 2017
Funding: €1M
Description: Cytochroma manufactures select cell models as dedicated batches for individual clients. Cell models can also be produced in a variety of formats and quantities to suit your needs. This provides the opportunity to customise critical cell model parameters to your drug discovery and cell therapy applications.
Founded: 2021
Funding: €16M
Description: Engimmune’s platform technologies have been developed to address the multiple challenges affecting the TCR-based therapeutic discovery and development process, offering innovative high-throughput solutions to TCR engineering and safety screening. Therefore, Engimmune is uniquely positioned to address key issues in the TCR-based immunotherapy field, most notably through the discovery and development of highly potent and specific TCR-based therapeutic products.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €4M
Description: Epigene Labs is creating the intelligence-augmenting solution for precision oncology research and drug development. Designed by cancer scientists for cancer scientists, the company’s mCUBE platform accelerates data-driven drug discovery, biomarker identification and patient selection - to bring better treatments to patients faster.
Founded: 2017
Description: Optimising a method for producing a living nerve growth guide designated “EngNT”, which is intended as an ‘off-the-shelf’ nerve replacement – primarily for peripheral nerve repair. This represents an innovative engineering solution to an unmet clinical need.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €2.5M
Description: Ikarovec is a pre-clinical phase gene therapy company. Our programmes are aimed at treating common eye diseases. Our technology allows for targeting multiple disease targets and pathways thereby improving efficacy and restoring sight and preventing blindness.
Founded: 2019
Description: ImmTune is pioneering the development of highly selective, safe and efficient delivery vectors for in-patient generation of cell and gene therapies. Advancements in cell and gene technologies including CRISPR, CAR-T immunotherapies are transforming the way certain fatal illnesses are managed, and cured. However, all the currently approved therapies are manufactured ex vivo, and face several challenges around limited availability, cost, and variable efficiency.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €6M
Description: Integra Therapeutics is a start-up company focused on next-generation gene writing. The technology is based on the CRISPR system, which has been merged with transposase and integrase proteins that have a great capacity for gene transfer. Thus, the system does not depend on viral vectors for transporting the gene-editing components into the cell.
Founded: 2022
Description: Laverock Therapeutics is developing a unique gene silencing platform for the creation of programmable, allogeneic cell therapies. Laverock's differentiated technology allows generation of iPSC-derived products with improved efficacy, safety and accessibility, solving many of the limitations with existing approaches.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €0.25M
Description: Lentitek is developing solutions to improve the viral yield for cell and gene therapies by 10 fold and beyond. This will help these developers reduce production costs and allow these amazing therapies get into more people who really need it.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €4.7M
Description: MicrofluidX presents the Cyto Engine™, the fastest, automated, instantly scalable platform for cell and gene therapy manufacture to help the commercialization and clinical translation of life-saving medicines.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €2.7
Description: Our lead compounds trigger the proliferation of stem cells for T cell therapies.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €1.8M
Description: Mytos is building a fully-automated cell manufacture platform for Pharma.
Founded: 2018
Funding: €6.2M
Description: NanoSyrinx is a discovery stage synthetic biology company creating a next-generation platform technology for the targeted intracellular delivery of biological molecules. Most drugs do not traverse the body well, limiting their effectiveness. This is an even greater problem for biologic drugs, such as antibodies and peptides; and consequently new delivery modalities are sorely needed.
Founded: 2021
Funding: €2M
Description: Novel method of DNA synthesis which enables the cost-effective production of oligonucleotides at impressive scale, speed, and accuracy. Applications across multiple areas, including gene therapy, T cell engineering, viral vector synthesis, etc.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €1.5M
Description: At PokeAcell, we master the activation of T cells towards selected cancer antigens, enabling us to develop T cell therapies with unique precision and functionality. With our ImmPACT activation platform, we can direct the desired T cell profile in a simple process and create multitargeted personalized T cell therapies to patients with no alternative treatments today.
Founded: 2021
Funding: €5M
Description: Sania Therapeutics is a gene therapy company developing therapies that target neural circuits.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €9.6M
Description: Cell Therapy transformed cancer treatment. Sarcura will transform cell therapy manufacturing.
Founded: 2023
Funding: €12.5
Description: Seamless Therapeutics is changing the paradigm of gene editing through a pioneering approach to restore health in patients with severe conditions in a safe and precise manner.
Founded: 2020
Description: The company is focused on developing novel neoantigen-based cell therapies for patients with solid tumours. Singula Bio aims to become a world leader in providing individualised cell therapies for cancer.
Founded: 2021
Funding: €0.5M
Description: StemSight is a cell therapy startup developing novel treatments for blindness operating in Tampere, Finland.
Founded: 2020
Description: Unlocking an expansive target space to build a pipeline of novel, TCR-based therapeutics.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €3.4M
Description: Telomere Therapeutics is a University of Barcelona spinoff developing telomerase gene therapy to treat pulmonary fibrosis .
Founded: 2017
Funding: €3.5M
Description: Target monoclonal antibody, viral vector production, and potentially even cell and gene therapy processing.
Founded: 2020
Description: Founded on the breakthrough discovery on how to manufacture a specific type of innate immune cells, namely plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells (pDCs) for use in cellular therapies, including cancer immunotherapy. pDCs are multifaceted immune cells with features that have been lacking in existing therapies. UNIKUM Therapeutics has developed methods to genetically engineer the cells, thereby further enhancing their therapeutic potential and establishing a unique position to champion a whole new class of cellular therapies.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €10M
Description: We have developed an AI platform enabling to accelerate the discovery and the design of genomic therapies such as Cell Therapies, RNA Therapies and DNA Therapies.
Series A
Founded: 2021
Funding: €61M
Description: AAVantgarde Bio has two proprietary, AAV-based large gene delivery platforms. The first leveraging DNA recombination, named dual hybrid; and the second, a protein trans-splicing, named AAV intein. The company is validating the platforms in two lead programs: Usher Syndrome Type 1 B associated retinitis pigmentosa (Usher1B), using dual hybrid; and Stargardt disease, using AAV intein. AAV gene therapy has been limited by transgene capacity, and the Company’s platforms enable delivery of large genes to tissue and cells in vivo; something that could extend into many disease areas.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €27.6M
Description: Based on a stealth cancer-targeting virus carrying a transgene for one or more antitumour or immune activator drugs, Trocept is the first approach that meets these
Founded: 2019
Funding: €3.5M
Description: Graft-versus-Host-Disease (GvHD) is a common complication of stem cell transplantation that is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Our goal is to prevent the development of GvHD at an early stage with the cellular therapy ATreg and thus to provide a curative therapy with few side effects for patients with blood stem cell transplantation for the first time. ATreg is a safe and efficient treatment option for transplanted patients providing substantial improvement of survival rate and quality of life.
Founded: 2021
Funding: €132M
Description: Ascend was founded to address the need for quality manufacturing capacity for any gene and cell therapy developer. Our core expertise is in adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors and we are building capabilities by acquiring and merging with experienced teams with validated technology.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €70.6M
Description: At AviadoBio our mission is to transform the lives of patients living with and suffering from neurodegenerative disorders by developing and delivering transformative gene therapies for diseases including frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Founded: 2020
Funding: €77M
Description: Our lead investigational product (CTx001) is being evaluated as a potential gene therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration/geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness.
Founded: 2017
Funding: €4.7M
Description: Developing its Artificial Membrane-Binding Protein (AMBP) technology to deliver transformative cell therapies for use in cancer treatment. Currently, we are developing multiple AMBPs in combination with different immune cell types to treat solid tumours.
Founded: 2018
Description: AAV-mediated gene therapy for the treatment of CNS diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Founded: 2019
Funding: €19M
Description: EG 427 is a French biotechnology company that pioneers a new approach in gene therapy called pinpoint gene therapy.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €40M
Description: Egle Therapeutics has been founded with a vision to become a game changer in the field of immunomodulating T-regulatory cells (Tregs) through the unique concept of Tregs’ starving while specifically targeting the most immunosuppressive ones.
Founded: 2016
Funding: €17.5M
Description: We are leading the development of Dark Antigen® immunotherapies by interrogating both sides of the immune synapse - the interface of recognition between cancer cells and T cells. From the tumor cell side, we look beyond the known proteome into the genomic dark matter to identify and characterize Dark Antigens that are uniquely presented on the surface of cancer cells by HLA receptors, shared across broad patient populations, and homogenously expressed within tumors. On the T cell side, we are discovering and characterizing T-cell receptors (TCRs) that induce potent anti-tumor responses against our Dark Antigen targets. These discoveries are fuelling a pipeline of targeted immunotherapies designed to improve treatment outcomes for broad patient populations.
Founded: 2020
Description: Tech-bio company transforming the precision, scale, and speed of development of T cell receptor (TCR) immunotherapies, today announced the successful prediction and optimisation of multiple TCR assets for targeting leukamias and solid tumours. The company's pioneering machine learning platform EMLy™ (Etcembly Machine Learning) enables AI based engineering of novel TCRs from the complete theoretical TCR repertoire.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €16M
Description: At Genespire, we target the root cause of the disease by inserting therapeutic genes directly into the DNA of patient’s cells. When those cells divide and multiply the therapeutic gene is maintained in the progeny, and functional proteins are permanently and stably expressed for a durable and life-long therapeutic effect. We build on two first-in-class technology platforms:
The immune shielded lentiviral vectors (ISLVs), for in vivo application in the liver;
The advanced gene editing platform, for precise ex vivo targeted insertion of genes in the patient’s blood cells.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €20M
Description: Developing a gene therapy for a group of diseases known as type II collagen disorders.
Founded: 2014
Funding: €11.5M
Description: Our mission is to develop next generation CAR-T therapies using the Company’s proprietary Lateral CAR platform to improve treatment outcomes and save the lives of patients with refractory cancers.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €30M
Description: Matterhorn is a leader in developing a new class of MR1 directed cell therapy targeting cancer through its proprietary M-TCR cell therapy platform.
Founded: 2023
Funding: €50M
Description: NewBiologix is committed to improve the generation and production of viral vectors used in gene and cell therapies by combining innovative and proprietary bioinformatics platform with advanced R&D experimentation.
Founded: 2017
Funding: €19.8M
Description: Pear Bio utilizes organ-on-chip & computer vision to model the spread of cancer and assess drug impacts on its progression. Including Cell Therapies.
Founded: 2020
Funding: €45M
Description: Purespring Therapeutics is an AAV gene therapy company focused on the kidney globally.
Founded: 2017
Funding: €26.6M
Description: Resolution Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing macrophage cell therapy to treat chronic diseases.
Founded: 2017
Funding: €27.3M
Description: Smart Immune is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing ProTcell, a thymus-empowered T-cell therapy platform to fully and rapidly re-arm the immune system, enabling next-generation allogeneic T-cell therapies for all.
Founded: 2017
Funding: €60.2M
Description: Pioneering a novel use of CRISPR/Cas technology for microbial gene therapy. Our focus is on the development of novel, highly selective anti-bacterial drug candidates for use in difficult-to-treat conditions.
Founded: 2021
Funding: €30M
Description: Vector BioPharma's cutting-edge gene precision delivery technology will transform the safety, efficacy, and specificity of biologics.
Founded: 2017
Description: ViGeneron is dedicated to developing innovative gene therapies to treat ophthalmic diseases with high unmet medical need, as well as partnering with leading biopharmaceutical players in other disease areas. The company’s pipeline is built on two proprietary adeno-associated virus (AAV) technology platforms.
Founded: 2016
Funding: €7.5M
Description: Pioneering novel cell therapies for the treatment of cancer patients.
Funding unknown, but early-stage
Founded: 2017
Description: AaviGen's mission is to provide solutions for cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary gene therapies becoming an integral part of future clinical care.
ArgoBio Studio (Portfolio Companies)
Description: New target in ALS (Gene Therapy) and delivery platform for in-vivo CAR T cells.
Founded: 2018
Description: A platform for disease-specific therapy unleashes the multi-functional capabilities of regulatory T-cells
Founded: 2019
Description: Cbio A/S is a clinical stage cell therapy company started in 2019 focusing on Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapy – the most promising cell therapy for solid tumors.
Founded: 2022
Description: Delivering the iPSC platforms that ready the world for next-gen cell therapies.
Founded: 2015
Description: CiMaas is a start-up biotech company (spin-off from Maastricht University) focused on the development of immune cell therapy for cancer patients.
Founded: 2021
Description: While the gene therapy space has grown exponentially in the past 15 years, 99.5% of gene therapies developed fail clinical trials. Much of this failure is attributable to toxic and ineffective delivery systems. At Crane Biosciences, we build safe, effective, and targeted delivery systems to enable a new generation of gene therapies.
Founded: 2019
Description: DiNAQOR is a gene therapy platform company that focuses on advancing novel solutions for patients suffering from heart disease. Unknown 2019
Elevat3 VC Stealth portfolio company
Description: The UK-based company is developing novel, patent-protected gene medicines for multiple disease areas. The company’s platform technology is able to deliver gene medicines to any tissue (heart, brain, muscle), solving the major issue that has faced the gene medicine industry to date.
Founded: 2020
Description: Improving cancer patient’s journey with in vivo engineered CAR-T cells.
Founded: 2020
Description: A spin-out company in cell therapy space formed in 2020, currently working in stealth mode.
Founded: 2021
Description: Combine world-leading expertise in T-cell immunology, tumour biology, unbiased de novo antigen discovery, high-efficiency vaccine systems, and intelligent clinical trial design. In preclinical studies, our technologies outperform Merck/Moderna’s recent disclosures, across a range of cancers, without requiring the expensive checkpoint monoclonals.
Founded: 2022
Description: IngenOx is building a global oncology company focussed on the discovery and clinical development of new and innovative therapies to treat cancer. Acquired Argonaut Therapeutics, a precision therapeutics company that was established to develop epigenetically-acting drugs which target abnormal.
Founded: 2021
Description: The proprietary cell therapy technology platform for the silencing of intracellular IO targets, enables rapid treatment of patients using their own cells, by employing short out-of-body times in an outpatient setting.
Founded: 2020
Description: For the manufacture and management of the pharmaceutical quality of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) and cell, gene and tissue therapy products (CGTPs).
Founded: 2020
Description: Muvon Therapeutics is a biotech company developing autologous cell therapies to restore skeletal muscle.
Founded: 2021
Description: NVO-101, the main product we develop, is at the forefront of gene therapy combining an AAV vector expressing a small inhibitory RNA and an intraneural injection route.
Founded: 2021
Description: We use our cell-specific nanocarriers to develop mRNA and gene editing therapies for currently incurable diseases. Our pipeline includes immunotherapies, which we strive to advance rapidly into the clinic.
Founded: 2021
Description: This innovative new approach combines the suicide gene and cell therapy methods. It is based on a therapeutic strategy known as BioTrojan, in reference to the “Trojan Horse”. This cellular Trojan Horse carries a suicide gene that is thirteen times more effective than the wild-type gene, protected by a patent filed in 2012, initiated by Philippe Beaune and I. de Waziers.
Founded: 2021
Description: The GREAT technology from QUIDDITAS Therapeutics was created to fill this gap and bring gene therapy to the next level. GREAT is able to cut any single or double stranded nucleic acid sequences (RNA or DNA) and paste any length of nucleic acids anywhere in the genome in a fully controlled manner.
Founded: 2023
Description: Unlocking the full potential of mRNA & gene editing therapeutics through targeted & tunable delivery of these modalities.
Founded: 2019
Description: StemInov is a French Drug Discovery company working on a innovative cell based therapy in immunology .
Founded: 2022
Description: T-Therapeutics is a venture-backed company on a mission to unlock the power of T cells to treat chronic and infectious diseases.
Wrapping it up
Thanks for going through the entire list!
Please reach out, if:
You are part of one of the companies, or know someone there
Your company is missing
You want to talk
You want the Excel sheet with the raw data
I am available via LinkedIn or email.
Have an amazing day!