Syncona leads CHF 35m series-A for Anaveon

Syncona secured a 47% stake in Anaveon in return for its investment. The VC was joined by Switzerland-based Novartis Venture Fund.

The capital will be put towards the development of a selective IL-2 Receptor Agonist, which is a type of protein that could therapeutically enhance a patient's immune system to respond to tumours.

Anaveon is Syncona's 10th life sciences portfolio company, following its investment in OMass Therapeutics in August 2018.

Syncona chief executive Martin Murphy and partner Dominic Schmidt have joined Anaveon's board of directors alongside Florian Muellershausen from Novartis Venture Fund. Syncona partner Alice Renard has joined as an observer.

Previous funding
UZH Life Sciences Fund invested initial seed capital in June last year, which will convert in the series-A financing. UZH Life Sciences Fund was created through contributions of CHF 3m each from UZH Foundations and Novartis Venture Fund. Anaveon was the second company in which the fund invested.

Additional funding came from BaseLaunch, a healthcare accelerator operated by BaselArea.swiss.

Company
Anaveon was founded in 2017 by Onur Boyman, an immunologist working at the University Hospital Zurich and UZH, and Andreas Katopodis, who was previously a director at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research. The company is based in Basel.

People
Syncona – Martin Murphy (chief executive); Dominic Schmidt, Alice Renard (partners).
Novartis Venture Fund – Anja Koenig (global head).
Anaveon – Andreas Katopodis (co-founder, chief executive).

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• Topics
• Early-stage
• DACH
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