Tech company, Univercells, and Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF) have announced the closing of a €16 million Series B equity financing round, which will support the continued development of Univercell’s biomanufacturing technology.
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The financing round was anchored by institutional commitments from prominent investment funds on three continents. Additionally, it included Seoul-based Korea Investment Partners and two Belgian technology investors — The Innovation Fund and Inventures II.
“The Univercells platform represents a unique win–win opportunity,” said Glenn Rockman, partner at GHIF and incoming Univercells board member. “Its technology has incredible potential to make complex biologics more affordable and more widely accessible, while simultaneously pursuing an enormous commercial market opportunity.”
“We are delighted by all the encouragement and interest shown to us during this capital increase, which exceeded our expectations,” added Hugues Bultot, CEO of Univercells. “I am convinced we have strategically expanded the circle of Univercells shareholders to include organisations and individuals with the potential to be long-term, value-added supporters of our rapidly growing company. Importantly, all of our investors are also very closely aligned with our mission to make biologics affordable to all; they recognise the compelling financial return opportunities associated with that objective.”
This latest round of funding was catalysed by new validations of Univercells’ biologics manufacturing solutions. The company’s flagship Sabin inactivated polio vaccine (sIPV) programme recently achieved a 40-fold increase in polio D-antigen productivity compared to the benchmark process and manufacturing cost estimates are close to the original goal of $0.15 per dose.
Furthermore, the company is concluding technology transfer negotiations with a number of established biologics manufacturers and healthcare providers in China, India and Latin America. In parallel, Univercells will be demonstrating the versatility of its technology platform by developing turn-key manufacturing solutions for two additional public health vaccines.
With this funding in place Univercells will be able to commercialise a diversified portfolio of technology solutions for a variety of vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and enzyme replacement therapies, with the first products available for human use as soon as 2019.