coparion

Great news from CatalYm: we have successfully completed an oversubscribed $150 million Series D #financing to advance our lead program #visugromab into randomized Phase 2b clinical trials. This investment will expand visugromab’s late-stage clinical development into earlier lines of treatment including checkpoint naïve and second-line refractory settings in select #SolidTumor indications. We extend a warm welcome to our new investors: Canaan, Bioqube Ventures, Omega Funds, Forbion Growth Fund and Gilde Healthcare Partners. Together with support from our participating existing investors JEITO, Brandon Capital, Novartis Venture Fund and Vesalius Biocapital III  the funding highlights the potential of visugromab to bring benefit to cancer patients and also values the novel approach of neutralizing GDF-15, a key resistance factor to anti-cancer therapies. Visugromab is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting GDF-15, a key regulator of immune resistance to #cancer therapies. Our lead candidate has shown impressive results in a recent Phase 1/2a data update presented at #ASCO2024. The results demonstrated that the combination of visugromab and the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab achieves deep and durable anti-tumor activity, including complete responses, in patients with anti-PD-(L)1 relapsed/refractory solid tumors. Along with the financing, Colleen Feriod Cuffaro, Partner at Canaan, Jon Edwards, Managing Partner at Bioqube Ventures, and Otello Stampacchia, Managing Director and Founder at Omega Funds, will join our Board of Directors, and Stefan Luzi, PhD, Partner at Gilde joins as an Observer. As we enter this next stage of corporate growth, we remain committed to our mission of breaking immunosuppressive barriers and establishing a new benchmark in cancer care. For more details on the financing, visit: https://lnkd.in/dBfHK4sU

👉 Herzlich #willkommen an das gesamte Team der Neodigital Versicherung AG in St. Ingbert! Zum Ende der Woche gab es für mich ein weiteres Highlight: Gemeinsam mit Stephen Voss, Stefan Wirtz, Dirk Wittling, Anzhela Kuts, Oberbürgermeister Prof. Dr. Ulli Meyer, David Zimmer und dem gesamten Neodigital-Team durfte ich heute das neue Bürogebäude der digitalen Versicherungsfabrik am Innovations- und IT-Standort Stadt St. Ingbert einweihen. Großes Kompliment, lieber Stephen Voss, was Sie gemeinsam mit Ihrem Team und den bauausführenden Firmen in kürzester Zeit geschaffen haben: Eine höchst attraktive, moderne und inspirierende Arbeitsumgebung. 👍 Dass St. Ingbert dazu den passenden Rahmen bietet, um von hier aus die #Digitalisierung der #Versicherungsbranche voranzutreiben, freut uns in der IHK Saarland umso mehr. Denn es bestätigt einmal mehr, wofür wir immer wieder werben, nämlich dass es sich für Kommunen auszahlt, für wirtschafts- und mittelstandsfreundliche Rahmenbedingungen zu sorgen. Und dass St. Ingbert mit einer höchst wirtschaftsfreundlichen Verwaltung, dem richtigen Mindset, niedrigen und wettbewerbsfähigen Standortkosten, einer exzellenten Verkehrsanbindung und mit qualitativ hochwertigen Gewerbeflächen punktet, ist bei Investoren längst bekannt. Und es zahlt sich aus. 👏👏👏 In der IHK Saarland freuen wir uns auf die Fortsetzung der guten Zusammenarbeit und stehen weiterhin fest an Ihrer Seite. Viel Erfolg auf Ihrem weiteren #Wachstumskurs! Copyright Photos: Jennifer Weyland / Neodigital Versicherung #digital #innovation #technologie #saarland #saarwirtschaft #Versicherung #Versicherungswirtschaft #machen #gemeinsam Jennifer Wegemund OBG Gruppe Nadine Backes Florian Jung

We are happy to announce that we successfully raised €15 million in a Series C round led by Vesalius Biocapital IV with participation of existing investors Novo Holdings, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), and HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds. The new funds will be used to support a Phase Ib clinical trial of HRX-215 in the US and an international multicenter Phase IIa clinical trial in liver regeneration. Importantly, to take HepaRegeniX through the next stages of clinical development and value creation, Dr. Linda Greenbaum is joining HepaRegeniX as Chief Medical Officer (CMO), who said: “I am honored to join HepaRegeniX at such a critical juncture in its development. With this mode of action, HRX-215 has an immense potential to improve outcomes for patients who are currently not able to undergo potentially curative surgical resections due to liver tumors, and other patient groups affected by liver failure.” Read more in our press release: https://lnkd.in/d7gayikB

Portfolio Update 🚀: We are excited to announce that our portfolio company shyftplan has been acquired by the Munich-based PE fund Maguar Capital.   shyftplan, the provider of workforce management planning software, is a specialist in AI-based shyft scheduling and perfectly serves the needs of typical German „Mittelstand“ companies. The company counts firms like ZF, Krones, Bosch or Mercedes Benz to its customers.   Congratulation to Jan-Martin Josten and Dr. Farhood Torabian plus the entire team on reaching this significant milestone in the history of shyftplan! It has been a pleasure to be part of this success story.   // Stefan Martinez, David Zimmer, Christian Schulte.   Read the full press release here: https://lnkd.in/eSNyJ_m6   #hrtech #shyftplan #venturecapital #innovation

Das 2021 von Philipp Goebel, Tom Kedor, Amir Hadi und Carsten Eckmiller gegründete Berliner Start-up AUTOVIO.de digitalisiert und optimiert als Full-Service-Anbieter die Prozesse von Fahrschulen. Zu den gut zehn Investor*innen gehören u.a. coparion und Sparkmind.vc aus Finnland. #founder #startingup #startup #startups #innovation #existenzgründung #tech #investieren #entrepeneurship #mobility

The Battle for AI Supremacy - and what it means for #Start-ups The competition between Google and OpenAI heated up massively as both announced major updates to their AI assistants last week. OpenAI struck first on Monday, debuting its new flagship model, #GPT-4o. On Tuesday, Google announced new tools, including a conversational assistant called #GeminiLive and an upcoming "do-everything" AI agent, set for release later this year. These impressive updates highlight the rapid pace of innovation and investment in #AI. They also demonstrate that the firms are willing to roll out the technology quickly, no matter what. Therefore, it was not much of a surprise when OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist, Ilya Skutskeva, who was known to question Sam Altman’s ambition to deploy AI quickly, announced on Wednesday that he was leaving the firm. For AI start-ups, this is a challenging landscape. The latest developments show how quickly major players can introduce new functionalities, often competing directly with start-ups. Here's my advice: 1.    Avoid Generic Features: Don't create solutions that can be easily replicated by giants like OpenAI, #Microsoft, or Google. Their vast resources and distribution networks can easily outcompete you. Be thoughtful and self-critical about whether your innovation truly surpasses that of these multi-billion-dollar companies. 2.    Focus on Specific Domains or Verticals: Instead of developing broad applications, concentrate on domain- and industry-specific solutions where you have deep expertise. Offer robust end-to-end business or consumer SaaS offerings. This differentiation adds substantial value that generic solutions can't easily replicate. Baseline technology will likely be outperformed by the hyperscalers and platform players. By targeting specific markets and leveraging domain knowledge, you can develop specialized AI solutions that maintain relevance and a competitive edge. 3.    Embrace the Challenge: Stay close to platform players by participating in their programs and accelerators (I know, it can be cumbersome). It's better to be aware of their activities than to be caught off guard. Amid all this, it was almost lost that on Tuesday, #Anthropic’s AI assistant #Claude became available in Europe. It will be interesting to watch what next steps Amazon Web Services (AWS) will take over the summer. coparion David Zimmer Christian Schulte https://lnkd.in/e3t_ECNt https://lnkd.in/eCXs_TFT https://lnkd.in/eg_9hhHg https://lnkd.in/eKfC8VB5

We are proud to share that our latest research on our first-in-class MKK4 inhibitor HRX-215 has been featured on the cover of Cell!   This recognizes our exciting findings that HRX-215 can enhance liver regeneration, which is abstracted by the liver fragments originating from a drug capsule. The 3D illustration of the therapeutic target structure MKK4 is a nod to the NMR structure-based approach of drug discovery and development. We would like to thank Stefanie Huber of neunpunktzwei for the cover illustration, which perfectly captures our work.   The full manuscript describing our preclinical as well as our successful first-in-human trial is available here: https://lnkd.in/gke5ukXA #liverdamage #livertransplantation #livertumors

Congratulations of the outstanding team of Protembis GmbH for their successful financing round! Karl von Mangoldt Conrad Rasmus Oliver Schumacher coparion https://lnkd.in/gr2F8823

Portfolio Update 🚀: We are thrilled to announce that our portfolio company Cardior Pharmaceuticals has been acquired by Novo Nordisk for up to 1.025 billion Euros.   Cardior is a clinical-stage company focused on the development of CDR132L to address the root causes of cardiac dysfunctions. coparion has been an investor in Cardior since 2021 and this acquisition constitutes the first unicorn exit in the young history of coparion.   Congratulation to Dr. Claudia Ulbrich, Thomas Thum and the whole Cardior Team on this significant achievement! It has been great to be part of this success story Vera Mehler, Sebastian Pünzeler, David Zimmer, Christian Schulte.   Read the full press release here: https://lnkd.in/eya56ryv   #biotech #VentureCapital #innovation

Our publication in Cell, “First-in-class MKK4 inhibitors enhance liver regeneration and prevent liver failure”, is online!   The research is a collaborative effort between Prof. Dr. Zender’s lab at the Universitätsklinikum Tübingen, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (USA) and HepaRegeniX. We show that our first-in-class MKK4 inhibitor HRX-215 strongly enhances liver regeneration and prevents liver failure in preclinical model systems.   These results open up new potential treatment avenues in oncological liver surgery and liver transplantation. Our successfully completed Phase I trial further underlines the enormous potential HRX215 has for treating severe liver damage in patients.   Read the full publication here: https://lnkd.in/e787ivmd Our Press release can be found here: https://lnkd.in/dbm-M_uR #liverdamage #livertransplantation #livertumors