Rhenovia raises €390K in angel funding

Funding

Rhenovia Pharma, of Mulhouse, France has raised €390,000 in a first round of angel funding from individual Alsace Business Angels and via their fund, ABA Invest SAS, two entrepreneurs from France and Switzerland, and SODIV, an investment fund for the economic development of the Alsace region.

This will be added to the €1.4 million that Rhenovia has raised from its founders and team members, regional and government funding and European research grants, and revenues generated by its service contracts.

Rhenovia was set up to commercialise the use of computer models of the brain developed at the University of Southern California in the discovery of drugs for treating neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.

“This financing round represents a major milestone in Rhenovia’s development, bringing significant progress both financially and in terms of recognition,” said Serge Bischoff, CEO. “The backing of our new investors, together with the recently announced [...] subcontracting deal with the US National Institutes of Health of around $440,000 adds about one million dollars to our finances.”

The company has also signed contracts with the pharmaceutical companies Altran and Sanofi Aventis, to apply its central nervous system biosimulation models to the discovery of drugs for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

“Rhenovia Pharma is a world leader in the modelling of the central nervous system for therapeutic purposes,” said Marc Loizeau, of Alsace Business Angels. Among the reasons for making the investment is the potential of Rhenovia’s well-balanced management and scientific team with a presence in the US, Germany, Switzerland and France. “They bring together international experts in biosimulation in CNS and substantial experience in the pharmaceutical industry,” said Loizeau.

The additional funds will serve to pursue the development of Rhenovia’s technology platforms and expand them to new therapeutic indications. They will also enable the company to diversify its service offerings to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Rhenovia plans to increase its staffing in the next few months by hiring a neurobiologist and one or two additional computing engineers and technicians.