Medical startup Ferronova has raised $6 million in a top up of its five-year-old Series A to $17.5 million. The fresh funding was led by existing investors Uniseed/UniSuper, South Australian Venture Capital Fund, Artesian Venture Partners and Renew Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Singapore- based Ultragreen.ai. The Adelaide biotech, founded in 2016 a spin-out from the… Read more »
A Sydney-based alternative proteins startup fermenting “cow-free dairy” alternatives has raised $10 million in a convertible note. The round for All G was supported by LSE-listed clean food investor Agronomics, an existing investor, as well as the VC arm of German tech-driven ingredients manufacturer Doehler and Singapore’s ID Capital. The company is now pondering a Series… Read more »
Rage Biotech, a therapeutics startup tackling chronic inflammatory disease, has raised $29 million in a Series A. The round was led by IP Group Australia and super fund Hostplus, with support from existing investors including Monash Ventures. The funds will go towards first-in-human clinical trials for Rage’s nasal therapy to treat inflammatory lung diseases The… Read more »
Melbourne biotech ENA Respiratory has raised $34 million (US$22.4m) in a Series B funding round to support the development of its virus-agnostic nasal spray, INNA-051, designed to boost the body’s natural defences against respiratory infections. The raise was led by existing investors Brandon Capital and Uniseed, with participation from Stoic Venture Capital, the Gates Foundation… Read more »
Needle-free vaccination delivery scaleup Vaxxas has raised $49.2 million in a Series D, but cut 10% of its workforce, including a clear out of its executives. The University of Queensland spin out has moved founding CEO David Hoey, who’s been on leave for the past three months, into a strategic adviser role after 13 years… Read more »
Queensland biotech Lucia Bio has topped up its Seed round with an additional $2 million to take the total raised to $3m. The startup, launched last year, is a joint venture between UK commercialisation firm Molecule to Medicine (MTM) and investor UniQuest’s QEDDI (Queensland Emory Drug Discovery Initiative) team at the University of Queensland (UQ).… Read more »
LaunchVic’s sidecar fund for women founders, the Alice Anderson fund, has completed a pre-Seed $1.1 million raise for Melbourne pet health startup Elita. The commitment brings to a close the long-running raise for Elita, which is building a stem cell bank for Australian pets. Founded by Paloma Newton and Jackson Gritching, the genetics startup, which… Read more »
Brisbane biotech startup creating lactoferrin, a key protein in human breast milk, using precision fermentation, after securing $7 million in funding. The investment for Eclipse Ingredients includes $2.9 million from the federal government’s Food and Beverage Accelerator, as well as backing from Silicon Valley investor AgFunder. Eclipse hopes to launch its first product in 2027,… Read more »
Sydney biotech startup Smart MCs has secured $900,000 in funding through the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Linkage Program to scale its next-generation microcarrier technology for large-scale cell-based manufacturing. The project is a partnership between Smart MCs and the University of New South Wales, led by Associate Professor Christopher Marquis and Professor Kristopher Kilian, working alongside… Read more »
The federal Labor government’s flagship National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) is back investing post-election, hitting the send button on another $27 million to lead a $40 million Series C for PolyActiva. The 15-year-old Melbourne biotechnology scaleup is developing potentially revolutionary eye implant technology to treat glaucoma and improve treatment outcomes for patients with ocular (eye)… Read more »
Sydney clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical startup AdvanCell, which is developing innovative cancer therapeutics, has raised US$112 million (A$178m) in a Series C. The round was co-led by US-UK fund SV Health Investors, Sanofi Ventures, Abingworth, and SymBiosis. Additional support came from existing investor Morningside, alongside new investors Tenmile, Brandon Capital, and others. Founded in June 2019, AdvanCell was… Read more »
A biotech startup hoping to use gene therapy to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Motor Neurone Disease (MND), epilepsy and dementia has raised $16.75 million in a Series A. The round for Celosia Therapeutics was led by research commercialisation fund Uniseed, with support from UniSuper and hedge fund manager Iomar Barrett, who has amyotrophic lateral… Read more »
The clap is back big time. Over the past decade, the levels of the sexually transmitted infection (STI) gonorrhoea have increased by 157%. Chlamydia is also on the rise up 26% and is now the most reported communicable disease in Australia, with over 110,000 cases in 2023. But the infection, which is often appears asymptomatic,… Read more »
New Zealand startup DNAiTECH, which has developed instant diagnostic tests that don’t need a lab, has raised NZ$1 million (A$910k) in a pre-Seed round led by Sprout Agritech. It’s Sprout’s 10th investment alongside partners Finistere Ventures in the US, NZ dairy goliath Fonterra and venture builder OurCrowd, as well as the Te Pokapū Auaha Callaghan… Read more »
Since it was founded nearly two decades ago, 23andMe has grown into one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world. Millions of people have used its simple genetic testing service, which involves ordering a saliva test, spitting into a tube, and sending it back to the company for a detailed DNA analysis. But now… Read more »
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