- Board strengthened with appointments of Tim Haines (Abingworth) as Non-executive Chair and Dr Oliver Nussbaumer (co-founder of GammaDelta Therapeutics and Adaptate Biotherapeutics) and Dr Inga Deakin (Molten Ventures) as Non-executive Directors
London, UK, 24 January 2024 — IMU Biosciences (or “the Company”), a techbio company revolutionising immune powered precision medicine, today announces the close of a £11.5 million Series A financing round. The round was led by European tech VC Molten Ventures and included LifeX Ventures and other individuals.
IMU Biosciences is coupling deep, systems-level immune profiling with a proprietary AI platform to build a uniquely detailed immune atlas spanning the breadth of human health and disease. Its CytAtlas® platform is fuelling a new understanding of the immune system to power the future of translational research and clinical practice, from diagnostics to drug development and treatment response, and with application across multiple high-growth areas, including immune-oncology, cell therapy, autoimmune disorders and transplantation.
In immuno-oncology, IMU’s unique approach enables rapid immunophenotyping from liquid biopsy (blood) samples to enable patients to be matched with therapy that is most likely to be effective, while also providing ongoing and real-time immune monitoring along the entire patient journey to maximise therapeutic impact and safety.
Furthermore in cell therapy, IMU’s platform is being applied to identify immune signatures in donors that predict for efficient and consistent cell therapy expansion thereby significantly improving manufacturing efficiency – a major challenge in this nascent field.
"With our technology, we’re building the world's largest immune data assets across health and disease, which allows us to perform analyses with a level of depth and granularity that was previously unthinkable," said Dr Adam Laing, CEO and Co-founder of IMU Biosciences. “This systems-level approach to understanding immune function enables us to look at the bigger picture rather than just focusing on individual disease-associated parameters. Our goal is to revolutionise precision medicine, improving its effectiveness, reducing failure rates in clinical trials, and making these therapies more viable in the long run.”
"Our technology could fundamentally change how we approach patient stratification for advanced therapies, disease monitoring and diagnostics," explained Dr Tom Hayday, CSO and Co-founder of IMU Biosciences. "We're talking about better patient outcomes, more effective therapies, and even cost reductions in healthcare over the long term. This potential is already being recognised by pharma and biotech companies as well as leading academic institutions, offering us multiple opportunities to create significant value from strategic collaborations that leverage our unique approach."
The new capital raised through the Series A round will be deployed to supercharge IMU Biosciences' expansive roadmap, including advancing its novel CytAtlas® platform, fostering new strategic partnerships and projects, conducting cutting-edge, large-scale immune research, and expanding its operations into the Boston/Cambridge, MA area.
Dr Inga Deakin, Principal, Molten Ventures said: “IMU's technology has the potential to transform our understanding of the immune system. Its advanced AI platform – combined with deep immune data profiling – enables unique insights into the immune system, which plays a critical role in virtually every disease. We are thrilled to lead this investment round and support IMU in their journey towards groundbreaking discoveries in healthcare.”
In conjunction with the fundraising, Tim Haines was appointed to the IMU Biosciences board of directors as Non-executive Chair and Dr Oliver Nussbaumer and Dr Inga Deakin were appointed as Non-executive Directors.
- Tim is Executive Partner at Abingworth, a leading international life sciences investment group, and brings more than 30 years of international investor and management experience in the life sciences industry.
- Oliver is a leading immunologist specialising on innate immune cells and their use in immuno-oncology, early research and development to IND. He was R&D Distinguished Fellow (Executive Scientific Director), Cell Therapy Innovations at Takeda and a co-founder of GammaDelta Therapeutics and Adaptate Biotherapeutics (both acquired by Takeda in 2022).
- Inga is a Principal at Molten Ventures with over 10 years’ experience building and investing in life science and digital health companies. She spent three years in the US, gaining international industry and healthcare experience, as Chief of Staff in a commercial stage molecular diagnostics company and as Entrepreneur in Residence at Duke University.
IMU Biosciences was founded in 2021 by Dr Adam Laing (Chief Executive Officer), Dr Tom Hayday (Chief Scientific Officer) and Mario Cantero (Chief Operating Officer), based on ten years of research out of the laboratory of Professor Adrian Hayday at King’s College London. Applying AI-driven data analytics to immunology research crystalised further when COVID-19 emerged, and the team leveraged its technology to understand the human immune response to the virus. IMU Biosciences has further validated and fine-tuned its unique approach in partnership with leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The Company was initially seed funded by the European technology investor Kfund and other angel investors.
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About Molten Ventures
Molten Ventures plc is one of the most active venture capital firms in Europe, developing and investing in disruptive, high growth technology companies. We believe it is our role to support the visionary entrepreneurs who will invent the future. We fuel their growth with our ‘energy’ in the form of truly patient capital, access to international networks and decades of experience building businesses. Currently, Molten Ventures is a shareholder in a diverse portfolio of companies including Revolut, Trustpilot, Ledger and Thought Machine.
For more information please visit: www.moltenventures.com
About LifeX Ventures
LifeX Ventures is a New York-based venture capital firm investing in global visionary entrepreneurs using software and AI to develop transformational solutions that will extend the life of humans and the planet. With its $100M debut fund, LifeX is targeting the two largest sectors in the world: People (bio/health) and Planet (climate), where Software and AI suddenly matter.
To learn more, please visit https://www.lifex.vc
About Kfund
Kfund is a family of funds supporting the best tech entrepreneurs in all their stages (multistage) while covering all their needs (multiproduct), across Southern Europe and Latam. With more than €500M in AUM, we invest from pre-seed to Series B and can write cheques between €100K to €15M.
Contacts
Adam Laing, CEO and Co-founder, IMU Biosciences
media@imubiosciences.com
Mark Swallow, Frazer Hall, Leila Adlam, MEDiSTRAVA Consulting
IMUBiosciences@medistrava.com
Oliver Pink, Head of Communications, Molten Ventures
Oliver.pink@molten.vc
