Scipio bioscience Announces Its Seed Funding

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Scipio bioscience, a Paris-based biotechnology company devoted to providing a novel sample preparation solution for single-cell studies in the form of benchtop kits, announces today the completion of its initial fundraising. A total of €1.2m has been obtained from two European seed funds: Paris, France-based Seventure Partners’ Quadrivium I seed fund and Bonn, Germany-based High-Tech Gründerfonds. These funds will fuel the reinforcement of the R&D team focused on the completion of the first prototype kit, dedicated to single-cell transcriptomics.

Scipio bioscience exploits a proprietary technology for the preparation of samples for single-cell profiling based on barcoding in a test tube format. Scipio bioscience’s sample preparation solution for single-cell-omics is freed of the substantial investment and running costs of existing technologies, while achieving the flexibility and scalability required in state-of-the-art research. The technology was developed by Prof Stuart Edelstein, a world-renowned biophysicist, who leads the company as President, joined by Pierre Walrafen, Ph.D., an experienced biotech manager, as CEO.

“The costs and constraints of available methods for sample preparation have hampered widespread adoption of single-cell approaches so far”, says Prof Stuart Edelstein. “We overcome these hurdles by providing a simple kit-based technology, requiring no specific devices, to prepare thousands of cells for profiling studies in a test tube setup. We believe this will make single-cell RNA-sequencing a routine laboratory tool, for the benefit of patients and scientists.”

“There is an evident need for accessible single-cell transcriptomics solutions and studies at the single-cell level will represent a major share of the sequencing market”, adds Philippe Tramoy, Director of Quadrivium 1. “Scipio bioscience’s solution addresses this need, with the potential to both drastically reduce cost and expand the fields of applications, in both clinical and basic research.”

Scipio bioscience is housed in the iPEPS-ICM incubator of the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM), located in the celebrated Parisian Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. The ICM offers cutting-edge core facilities, including the genomics and bioinformatics platforms. Collaborations are being initiated with ICM laboratories as well as other leading European research institutions to secure access to samples and user feedback.

Scipio bioscience plans to expand R&D operations into Germany in 2018.

Philippe Tramoy, Partner at the Quadrivium 1 seed fund at Seventure Partners, Prof Stéphane Le Crom, head of the Omics network at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris, France) and Frank Hensel, Ph.D., Sr Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, serve on the Strategy Committee chaired by Prof Stuart Edelstein.

About Seventure Partners
With over €660m in assets under management as of the end of 2016, Seventure Partners is a leading venture capital firm in Europe. Since 1997, Seventure Partners has invested in innovative businesses with high growth potential in two fields: Digital technologies in France and Germany, and Life sciences across Europe, Israel and North America. Investments can range between €500k and €10m per round, or up to €20m per company, from early to late stage. Seventure is a subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management. Natixis is the international corporate, investment, insurance and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France. For more details: http://www.seventure.fr/en/ Twitter: @SeventureP

About Quadrivium 1 seed fund
Quadrivium 1 Seed Fund is one of the venture capital funds managed by Seventure Partners. This fund provides seed capital to French companies (FNA – Programme d’Investissement d’Avenir) in the fields of life science and digital technologies, generated by or with links to an academic grouping built around UPMC, Université Paris II, Université Paris IV, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Université Technologique de Compiègne, CNRS, Institut Curie, Fondation Pierre Gilles de Gennes, Fondation Voir et Entendre and Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL). For more details: http://www.seventure.fr/en/our-institutional-funds

About the High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is Germany’s most active seed stage investor. With about EUR 825 million under management (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II, EUR 249 million HTGFIII), HTGF provide financing for technology-driven companies active in a wide range of fields, including robotics, IoT and energy, Medtech and Biotech, chemicals and software. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take their ideas through prototyping and to market launch. HTGF can provide up to EUR 3 million in total financing per company in follow-on financing rounds. Furthermore, start-ups benefit from HTGF’s team experience and expertise as well as the extensive network of investors, experts, managers and scouts. Investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V. and numerous strategic corporate investors, including ALTANA, BASF, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deutsche Post DHL, Drillisch AG, EVONIK, Haniel, Hettich, Knauf, Körber, LANXESS, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, PHOENIX CONTACT, Postbank, QIAGEN, RWE Generation SE, SAP, Schufa, Schwarz Gruppe, STIHL, Thüga, Vector Informatik and WACKER. For more details: https://high-tech-gruenderfonds.de/en/

About Scipio bioscience

Scipio bioscience develops a new generation of single-cell analysis sample preparation, to answer the growing need of clinical & fundamental research labs. The patent-based technology is based on an innovative chemical approach conceived by Prof. Stuart Edelstein, a world-famous bio-physician, very present in the academic and entrepreneurial worlds. The first application of Scipio’s technology is dedicated to study the transcriptome, a highly strategic research area. Scientific partnerships with academic labs, such as the ICM – Brain & Spine Institute, Pitié Salpêtrière hospital, Paris – are ongoing, in order to develop the study & industrialization phases of the technology.
For more information: http://www.scipio.bio

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