Cure51 raises a €15 million seed round to harness the natural power of cancer survivors to develop first-in-class treatments and transform cancer into a curable disease

• Fundraise led by Sofinnova Partners, with participation from Hitachi Ventures GmbH, Life Extension Ventures, Xavier Niel, and Olivier Pomel, CEO, and co-founder of Datadog
• Principal investigators included world-renowned oncology centers such as Gustave Roussy Institute, Leon Bérard Center, Charité Universitätsmedizin,  the Instituto Europeo di Oncologia (IEO - Milan, Italy) and Vall d'Hebron
  

PARIS, March 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cure51, a techbio company seeking to unlock the biological mechanisms responsible for exceptional survivors among cancer patients, today announced that it has successfully raised €15 million in a seed funding round led by Sofinnova Partners. Other investors included: Hitachi Ventures GmbH, Life Extension Ventures, Xavier Niel, and Olivier Pomel, CEO, and co-founder of Datadog.

The funding received will enable Cure51 to build a unique cohort, exploring the molecular processes by which certain cancer patients survive for very extended periods of time despite having highly aggressive forms of the disease. The company seeks to unlock these mechanisms to enable every patient to become an exceptional survivor with new insights for precision medicine and drug target discovery. Key to this endeavor are the new analytical techniques and the strong partnership the company has forged with leading oncology centers worldwide.

"This funding marks a pivotal moment in Cure51's journey, but more importantly, in the path towards curing cancer," says Nicolas Wolikow, Co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Cure51. "With this support, we are on our way to unlocking survival mechanisms and ultimately, saving countless lives,” adds Simon Istolainen, Cure51 Co-founder and Chief Strategy and Scientific Network Officer.

"Looking at ‘mechanisms of exceptional survival’ is not a new concept, but Cure51 has taken this to a whole new level in terms of the scale of the endeavor plus leveraging the latest in analytical techniques," said Simon Turner, Partner at Sofinnova Partners. "Cure51's strong clinical network and ambitious team make this an investment we’re thrilled to support."

“Modern AI models require world class datasets to uncover novel biology and discover transformative medicines, and this is what Cure51 is uniquely creating for cancer patients,” notes Joanna Soroka, PhD, Principal at Hitachi Ventures GmbH.

Cure51 was founded in March 2022 by Nicolas Wolikow and Simon Istolainen, with input and support from Okwin co-founder Thomas Clozel, alongside seasoned entrepreneurs and five world-renowned oncology centers: Gustave Roussy Institute (IGR, Paris - France), Leon Bérard Center (CLB, Lyon - France), Charité Universitätsmedizin (Berlin - Germany), Milan - Italy), the Instituto Europeo di Oncologia (IEO - Milan, Italy) and Vall d'Hebron (VHIO, Barcelona - Spain). The aim is to pioneer the creation of the world's first global clinical and molecular database of cancer survivors, by rewriting the narrative of cancer. Rather than focusing on the disease mechanisms, Cure51 studies outliers – those individuals who defy statistics and miraculously survive the most aggressive forms of cancer, including metastatic stage pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma.

About Cure 51

Cure51 is a French 'TechBio' company founded by Nicolas Wolikow and Simon Istolainen, alongside seasoned entrepreneurs and five world-renowned oncology centers: Gustave Roussy Institute (IGR, Paris - France), Leon Bérard Center (CLB, Lyon - France), Charité Universitätsmedizin (Berlin - Germany), the Instituto Europeo di Oncologia (IEO - Milan, Italy) and Vall d'Hebron (VHIO, Barcelona - Spain). The collaboration between the private and public sectors is at the core of the Cure51 project, led by a passionate team with expertise in computing, medicine, and biology, and partnered with principal investigators across its network of over 50 leading oncology centers worldwide.

Cure51's exclusive data collection system, based on partnerships, enables the creation of a unique multimodal and multiomics database of Outliers. Using its discovery platform powered by computational modeling, Cure51 aims to understand the biological mechanisms responsible for this exceptional survival by identifying and validating targets that can act on these interactions, leading to first in class treatments. This research involves the use of all relevant models (in silico, in vitro, in vivo, ex vivo) and the integration of existing literature and available databases, along with the engagement of Cure51's KOL community. Ultimately, drug design will be subject to collaboration contracts with the industry. Further information can be found at www.cure51.com.

About Sofinnova Partners

Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm in life sciences, specializing in healthcare and sustainability. Based in Paris, London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of professionals from all over the world with strong scientific, medical and business expertise. Sofinnova Partners is a hands-on company builder across the entire value chain of life sciences investments, from seed to later-stage. The firm actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs as a lead or cornerstone investor to develop transformative innovations that have the potential to positively impact our collective future.

Founded in 1972, Sofinnova Partners is a deeply established venture capital firm in Europe, with 50 years of experience backing over 500 companies and creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2.5 billion under management. For more information, please visit: sofinnovapartners.com.

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