Strong investment continues for developer of Autoimmune Therapies

Biotech start-up Tridek-One focused on research and development of CD31 agonists to restore the immune balance, has closed a €16 million ($16.1M) financing round led by the Swiss VC Pureos Bioventures with the participation of new investors Bpifrance, through its InnoBio2 fund, and Bioqube Ventures (Belgium), as well as historical investors AdBio partners and Advent Life Sciences. The funds will primarily be used to identify development candidates against auto-immune diseases, to conduct IND-enabling studies and to further build the organization. The company previously raised €3M ($3.02M) in a first round in 2019 involving AdBio partners (FR) and Advent Life Sciences (UK).
 
Founded in 2018 by Dr. Giuseppina Caligiuri and Pr. Antonino Nicoletti, researchers at INSERM Unit 1148 (Paris, France), with the support of historical investor AdBio partners, Tridek-One is developing a novel CD31 agonist approach to modulate immune activation for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
 
The start-up has also appointed Laurence de Schoulepnikoff as chief executive officer. Laurence is a seasoned pharma and biotech professional with broad experience in transactions and R&D operations. She has worked in VC-funded biotech start-ups and mid-size private companies as well as large corporate organisations. She joined the company from AMAL Therapeutics, a leading Swiss biotechnology company focused on therapeutic cancer vaccines, where she spent the last three years as chief business officer and chief operating officer.

“I am delighted and grateful to have the opportunity to lead Tridek-One as we plan to reach important preclinical milestones and build a first-class biotech organisation for the treatment of auto-immune diseases,” said Ms de Schoulepnikoff.

Following the fundraising, Klaus Breiner of Pureos Bioventures, and Benoit Barteau of Bpifrance, are joining the company’s board of directors. Erik van den Berg, CEO of AM-Pharma, joins as independent chairman of the board of directors.

“It is a pleasure to join as chairman whilst the company is building a great team, with a professional syndicate of international investors committing to decades of research by the team of Dr. Giuseppina Caligiuri and Pr Antonino Nicoletti,” commented Mr van den Berg.

“There is still an important, unsatisfied medical need in many auto-immune diseases. Agonizing immune inhibitory receptors like CD31 has the potential to rebalance the immune system without being more broadly immunosuppressive. We are excited to further translate this concept with Tridek-One through its discovery and preclinical stages,” added Klaus Breiner, managing partner of Pureos Bioventures.

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