STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EnginZyme, the cell-free synthetic biology company, today announced a Series A investment of €6.4 million led by Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm based in Paris, London and Milan, bringing the company’s total funding to over €10 million since 2014.
The funds will be used to accelerate the development of EnginZyme’s technology platform and take its first internal production process to pilot. The company also announced that Michael Krel, Partner of the Sofinnova Industrial Biotech Fund, will join EnginZyme’s Board of Directors.
“Sofinnova Partners brings a deep industrial experience, which makes them the perfect partner for us,” said EnginZyme CEO Dr. Karim Engelmark Cassimjee. “This is a complex field, so it is important to have investors that can provide not only the financial support but also strategic guidance. With over a decade of experience investing in industrial biotechnology, there are few investors as well placed as Sofinnova Partners to bring this domain expertise to the table.”
“There's never been a more important time to provide solid, long-term support to pioneering companies in industrial biotechnology,” said Michael Krel, Partner of the Sofinnova Industrial Biotech Fund. “We strongly believe in EnginZyme’s outstanding team and the potential of its technology to join the power of biology with the efficiency of chemical engineering to bring us towards a more sustainable future.”
EnginZyme seeks to solve one of the fundamental problems of our time: How to produce sustainable alternatives to plastics, nylons, rubbers, and the tons of other synthetics that are used on a daily basis, without compromising on cost-effectiveness. To achieve this, EnginZyme’s technology platform combines the breadth and power of nature (enzymatic cascades) with the efficiency of the chemical industry (packed bed reactors) in a best-of-both-worlds technical solution.
“It has long been recognized that if we could effectively access nature’s full palette of molecules, we could solve many of the world’s most pressing problems,” said Dr. Engelmark Cassimjee. “There’s just so much more you can do with biological systems than with traditional catalysts and petroleum-based building blocks. But the key word here is ‘effectively’ — it needs to be as cheap and easy to scale as the chemical solutions we’ve used for more than a century now. We’re the first company to truly address that and by doing so we are building foundational technology for an entire future industry.”
About EnginZyme
EnginZyme’s cell-free synthetic biology platform marries the efficiency of the chemical industry with the power and diversity of biology. The company was founded in Stockholm, Sweden. Since its start in 2014 it has used its technology to provide R&D services to leading companies in multiple industries, such as pharma, food, chemicals and flavors & fragrances. Its long-term aim is to make its cell-free synbio platform the foundation upon which the future chemical industry rests.
For more information, please visit: www.enginzyme.com
About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences. Based in Paris, France, with offices in London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of 40 professionals from all over Europe, the U.S. and Asia. The firm focuses on paradigm-shifting technologies alongside visionary entrepreneurs. Sofinnova Partners invests across the Life Sciences value chain as a lead or cornerstone investor, from very early-stage opportunities to late-stage/public companies. It has backed nearly 500 companies over more than 48 years, creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2 billion under management.
For more information, please visit: www.sofinnovapartners.com
