Date: 2015-07-08
Type of information: Financing round
Company: Eligo Bioscience (France)
Investors: Seventure (France)
Amount: € 2 million
Funding type: financing round
Planned used: Eligo Bioscience is a spin-off from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Rockefeller University. The company was cofounded in May 2014 by Dr. Xavier Duportet, Dr. David Bikard, Pr. Timothy Lu (Associate Professor at MIT) and Pr.
Luciano Marraffini (Assistant Professor at Rockefeller University).To tackle the raise of antibiotic resistance, the company uses its Eligo platform-technology to design new ultraprecise antibiotics, called Eligobiotics, that target harmful or resistant bacteria while sparing beneficial ones. Toward this goal, they use the gene-editing technology called CRISPR to search out gene sequences
unique to drug-resistant or virulent strains. If found, Eligobiotics chop up these sequences to annihilate the pathogenic organisms from our microbiome.
Others: * On July 8, 2015, Eligo Bioscience announced it received an investment of €2m in a seed round financing from Seventure, one of Europe’s leaders in financing innovation and visionary investor in the microbiome field since 2008. Business angels will also join the round during the summer. The company had previously raised non-dilutive funding from various awards and competitions, notably the French “Worldwide Innovation Challenge 2030” and is currently located in the incubator of Institut Pasteur in Paris, where it will open its own laboratory space late September.
In December 2013, Seventure launched Health for Life Capital, the first venture capital investment vehicule focused on investment in the microbiome and nutrition space. Europe is the primary focus of the fund, but it will expand internationally if strategic opportunities arise. The €120m fund attracted strategic investments from prestigious organisations including Danone, Tereos, Tornier and Lesaffre, as well as financial institutions. Health for Life CapitalTM is managed by Seventure’s life sciences team.
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
