Elypta, the Swedish molecular diagnostics firm pioneering metabolism-based liquid biopsies, announced today that it has raised €6.1 million in a late seed funding round closing in December 2019 and led by Industrifonden and Sciety. Norrsken Foundation’s newly raised impact fund also contributed, marking the first time the three entities have invested together. Other investors included Barcelona-based seed fund Nina Capital and Chalmers Ventures who has been an owner since inception.
Elypta was founded in 2017 to develop the first metabolism-based liquid biopsy platform enabling early detection and closer follow-up of cancer. The company will use the funds to complete development of its laboratory kits and software for measurement and analyses of a panel of metabolites identified by Elypta’s co-founders - professor Jens Nielsen at Chalmers University of Technology and Dr Francesco Gatto, Chalmers and also CSO at Elypta - as most promising for cancer diagnostics.
“We are delighted with our new and current investors. Our team is more committed than ever to make this new layer of non-invasive information available to clinical diagnostics,” said Francesco Gatto.
Elypta’s technology is being developed to ultimately be validated across multiple cancers and address a global market. The initial application will be a urine test for early detection of recurring kidney cancer, a condition where there are no suitable tests currently available. The application is currently being explored through the pivotal AURORAX-87A study (NCT04006405), the largest study to date in kidney cancer diagnostics funded by a €2.35 million grant to Elypta from the EU Horizon 2020 program in 2019.
“Our first objective is to improve follow-up of kidney cancer patients. Prognosis is very poor if a tumor recurs after surgery and by providing a safe urine test which can be used more frequently than CT (computed tomography) we hope to enable earlier detection and ultimately open a window for curative treatments,” said Elypta CEO Karl Bergman.
“This funding allows us to execute on our plans and make our first test available to urologists and patients, as well as for research across pharma and academia. We are also excited to have a syndicate of investors on board who not only share our vision, but also expand our network and adds significant experience to the team.”
Jonas Jendi at Industrifonden will be joining Elypta’s board and comments:
“Elypta combines novel science, data analytics software and a solid clinical validation plan, making them an excellent fit for our healthtech investment focus. The team is hard at work turning exciting scientific data into highly sensitive and cost-effective cancer diagnostics. We believe Elypta has a great opportunity to improve the standard of care in this challenging and important field.”
Tove Larsson, General Partner at Norrsken VC adds: "Elypta has the potential to impact the lives of millions of people, as its solution can increase the survival rate for one of the most common causes of death: cancer. Norrsken is proud to support this strong team as they continue to work on developing this groundbreaking methodology of early cancer detection."
For further information, please contact:
Karl Bergman, CEO: karl.bergma(at)elyptacom Tel: +46 73 262 53 33
About Elypta
Elypta is a Swedish molecular diagnostics company focused on reducing cancer mortality by enabling earlier detection and closer monitoring. The metabolism-based liquid biopsy platform in development measures a novel panel of biomarkers consisting of glycosaminoglycans and utilize machine learning algorithms to generate scores against cancer-type specific signatures. Elypta is advancing a broad study program across cancer and the first application expected to reach patients will be a test to enable early detection of recurring renal cell carcinoma. The AURORAX-0087A study is registered at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04006405. The study is co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 849251.
About Industrifonden
Industrifonden is a Nordic venture capital investor based in Stockholm. We invest in emerging science and technology ventures that have a meaningful impact on society. Our portfolio includes companies like Calliditas, Oncopeptides, Gesynta Pharma. For more information, visit www.industrifonden.com
About Sciety
Sciety is an investor network specialising in unlisted Swedish growth companies in life science and digital health. We combine experience in life science and finance to select promising companies in the sector and make them available for investments from our members. www.sciety.se
About Norrsken
Norrsken VC is a €100 million impact fund backed by Norrsken Foundation, launched in December 2019. The fund invests in rapidly scaling early stage startups that use their business models to solve some of the world's greatest challenges, such as poverty, health, discrimination, integration, food waste, mental health and climate change. The fund is based in Sweden and will invest primarily in Europe with a focus on the Nordics. Anchor investors in the fund include founders of Swedish tech unicorn companies - King, Mojang, Daniel Wellington and Klarna, Ramsbury Invest (H&M family office) as well as Swedish government owned company Saminvest AB. www.norrskenfoundation.org/vc/
About Chalmers Ventures
Chalmers Ventures is a leading Nordic incubator as well as a seed venture capital firm. www.chalmersventures.com
About Nina Capital
Nina Capital is a micro venture capital fund investing in need-driven, European founders building health tech companies with international ambitions. www.nina.capital
