Ncardia announces completion of €10.5M Investment Round
From left to right: Secretary of the state Mona Keijzer of Economic affairs and Climate; Stefan Braam, CEO Ncardia; Gerty Holla, Senior Investment Manager InnovationQuarter; Rinke Zonneveld, Director InnovationQuarter © Verkijk
Ncardia, an emerging drug discovery and development stem cell technology company whose mission is to deliver cardiac and neural drug discovery and safety solutions based on its best-in-class human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived technology, today announced the completion of a €10.5 million Series B financing round. The round was led by Épimède, a Belgium venture capital firm.
The company is is of great social importance as well, with technology that improves the care for heartpatients, reduces the costs of healthcare ans can replace animal testing. -Francis Quint, Head of InnovationQuarter Capital
Ncardia is a privately held company with operations in Europe and the US, that produces and commercializes high-quality, fully functional human iPSC derived cardiovascular and neuronal cell types. Using its cell products, Ncardia develops and commercializes electrophysiology-, biochemistry- and contraction-based assay services for predictive safety pharmacology, toxicology testing and drug efficacy screenings. In addition the company has built up a strong portfolio of patents covering the use of stem cell models for these applications. Ncardia believes that stem cell technology fast-tracks the delivery of better medicines to patients by improving the drug discovery process.
F.l.t.r: Leendert Jan Visser, Director MKB Nederland; Secretary of the state Mona Keijzer of Economic affairs and Climate © Verkijk
Stefan Braam, CEO of Ncardia, commented: “At Ncardia, important progress has been made on product and service programs for drug safety and efficacy screening. We have built strong and dedicated teams for research & development, manufacturing, drug discovery services, and sales & marketing, to execute our plan to become the trusted leader in human iPSC-based drug discovery solutions. I am delighted with the continued support from our current investors and I am very happy to welcome Épimède as our new investor.”
Marc Foidart, Investment Manager at Épimède said: “Ncardia had a very strong and encouraging start. We are convinced of the added value Ncardia will deliver in the coming years. We are very pleased to join the strong syndicate of existing investors and to support Ncardia growth acceleration.”
Secretary of the state Mona Keijzer is pleased with the new investment that Ncardia receives: “Congratulations Ncardia with your new investors. Ncardia is an inspiring example of how a Leiden based company, established by five young scientists, can impact the pharmaceutical industry. Your stem cell technology enables better drug development, benefitting patients all over the world. ”
Francis Quint, InnovationQuarter: “Ncardia is a good example of how a regional startup with unique technology can develop into a leading scale-up within a few years. The company is is of great social importance as well, with technology that improves the care for heartpatients, reduces the costs of healthcare ans can replace animal testing.”
The participants in this funding round include Épimède, InnovationQuarter, SRIW, SambrInvest, Vesalius Biocapital and SFPI-FPIM. The funds raised will be used by Ncardia to speed-up its already promising international growth, to develop the next generation safety assays and to expand capabilities in the cardiovascular drug discovery and high throughput screening domain.
© Verkijk
