Atlas leads €2.5m round for Harbour Antibodies

The new capital will be used by Harbour to commercialise its product and continue its research and development activities.

Atlas is currently investing from its ninth fund, Atlas Venture IX, which closed in April this year on $265m. A Massachussetts-based venture capital firm, Atlas invests in technology- and life sciences-focused companies via early-stage funding rounds. The firm typically invests an initial $500,000-5m into a business.

Company
Founded in 2006, Harbour is headquartered in Rotterdam. The company engineers transgenic mice, which are designed to aid in the research and development of human antibody-based therapies. Harbour's engineered mice are available for licensing to biotechnology, pharmaceutical and academic research firms.

The company has engineered two types of transgenic mice, H2L2 and HCAb. The mice are designed to generate human antibodies. According to Harbour, the engineering of these transgenic mice means that all licensed pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies will now be able to use transgenic mice to produce human antibodies, whereas the ability was before restricted to only a small number of the larger pharmaceutical firms.

People
Frank Grosveld is the co-founder and former CEO of Harbour. In conjunction with the new bout of funding, BJ Bormann has been named Harbour's new CEO. Atlas partner Peter Barrett led the deal for the firm and joined Harbour's board of directors as chairman.

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• Topics
• Benelux
• Healthcare
• Expansion
• Netherlands
• Atlas Venture