EPFL spin-out Biocartis raises €30M in second round

Funding

Biocartis SA, a personalised medicine specialist with a focus on molecular diagnostics, as announced the closing of its second financing round, in which it raised €30 million from its current shareholder base of life science investors and two new strategic investors from the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry.

The new investors are the Debiopharm Group and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation. This round was underwritten by Aescap, Biocartis' original lead-investor Biovest, Advent Venture Partners, several Biocartis employees and Benaruca, the family investment vehicle of Biocartis co-founder Rudi Pauwels.

Biocartis has developed a diagnostics platform for low to highly multiplexed detection, quantification, and amplification of molecular-based biomarkers, including nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules. The company recently acquired technology for rapid and fully automated DNA/RNA molecular diagnostic testing from Philips and will use the proceeds of this round to accelerate the development and validation of the first version of its proprietary platform.

“Debiopharm recognised some time ago that companion diagnostics would play an increasingly important role in personalised medicine and the cost-effectiveness of healthcare in general,” said Thierry Mauvernay, executive vice-president of Debiopharm Group. “We are extremely happy to have started a new financial partnership with a dynamic start up company that has all the necessary strengths and management know-how to become a leading player in the field of in vitro diagnostics.”

Pietro Scalfaro from Debiopharm has joined the board of directors of Biocartis, which is now chaired by Dinko Valerio from Aescap.  

Rudi Pauwels, founder and CEO of Biocartis, said, “This successful financing, within weeks after closing the acquisition of the Philips technology, is yet another important step in our plans to bring a novel and cost-effective diagnostic solution to the healthcare community. There is a global need to turn the many scientific advances in the understanding of the molecular basis of diseases and treatments into routine daily clinical practice.”

Pauwels added, “Our vision is of a future for medicine whereby the classical isolated elements of diagnostics and pharmaceuticals become more aligned and increasingly part of a much more integrated solution designed to optimise the outcome for the individual patient. Biocartis plans to actively work together with pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biomarker groups who can and would like to contribute to the practical realisation of these goals.”

Biocartis was founded in 2007 by Pauwels, who was also co-founder of Tibotec, Virco and Galapagos Genomics, with Philippe Renaud, a professor at EPFL, and Nader Donzel, the co-founder of Scitec Laboratory Automation. The company is based at the EPFL Science Park in Lausanne, Switzerland and at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.