BioCorteX raises $5 million in funding led by Sofinnova Partners and Hoxton Ventures to unlock drug-bacteria interactions

The company is developing precision medicine solutions using in silico simulation to solve the complex relationship bacteria, viruses and fungi play in health, disease and drug response

Edward Kliphuis, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, and Hussein Kanji, Partner, Hoxton Ventures, join the BioCorteX Board of Directors

March 28, 2023, LONDON – BioCorteX, a digital medicine company that employs the Carbon Mirror platform, a first-principle computer simulation to understand drug-bacteria interactions and improve a person’s response to treatments, has announced a $5 million seed funding round led by Sofinnova Partners, a leading European venture capital firm specializing in healthcare and sustainability, and Hoxton Ventures, an early backer of companies ranging from Deliveroo to Darktrace. To date, drug development largely ignores drug-bacteria interactions resulting in trials needlessly failing and a seemingly random response in people living with diseases. The funds will be used to further develop the company’s Carbon Mirror platform, which combines physics, chemistry and cutting-edge computational techniques, a melding of computer engineering, clinical insights and biology often referred to as “techbio.”

“The interaction between the microbiome and its host is complex and remains a challenging question that requires an entirely new approach," said Dr. Nik Sharma, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of BioCorteX. “As a clinician, our technology aims to develop treatments that will change a person who does not respond into someone who does, so that people living with diseases have confidence in the outcome. Having Sofinnova Partners and Hoxton Ventures on board as investors is fantastic as they have a unique understanding of our technology and the industry’s intricacies, which makes them the ideal partners.”

“BioCorteX’s key differentiation lies in its unique team, which combines leading clinicians, engineers and microbiome scientists to develop entirely novel in-silico simulations, akin to those used in designing next generation nuclear reactors and jet engines,” said Dr. Mo Alomari, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of BioCorteX. “Our Carbon Mirror technology is a near-universally applicable simulation of the complex human-microbiome interaction from physics and chemistry-based principles, which can improve clinical trial design, aiding people living with diseases in decision-making and developing novel therapeutics.”

“BioCorteX’s technology is the perfect example of how the power of data and novel computational techniques can be used to transform healthcare,” said Edward Kliphuis, Partner, Sofinnova Partners. “Never before have we been able to comprehend the vast complexity of the microbiome. Carbon Mirror gives us the power to elucidate cause and effect in the microbiome-host relationship and thus develop solutions that could drastically alter patient outcomes.”

“BioCorteX is looking at the microbiome in a unique way, using math to improve very challenging health issues,” said Hussein Kanji, Partner, Hoxton Ventures. “The technology has the potential to impact everything from the development of new and improved drugs to an individual’s health outcome. We are excited to partner with them on their journey.”

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About BioCorteX

BioCorteX is a digital medicine company that has developed a "techbio" platform to model the complex interactions between the microbiome, host, and treatment, ultimately helping clinicians personalize treatment. The company’s flagship product, Carbon Mirror™, uses technology incorporating principles of physics and chemistry to create in-silico simulations with high fidelity, to assess and predict an individual’s response to treatment based on their microbiome profile. This will ultimately enable a new paradigm of personalized care, bringing benefits to people living with diseases in treatment decisions, pharma companies in clinical trial designs, and ultimately to payers by ensuring a patient receives the most relevant and effective therapy available.

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.

About Hoxton

Hoxton Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm based in London and investing in European technology startups that can scale into large, global winners. It focuses on startups that either disrupt existing industries or invent entirely new market categories. It was the first institutional investor in Babylon Health, Darktrace and Deliveroo, and its portfolio companies have grown to an aggregate value of over $25 billion. Hoxton typically invests between $500,000 and $5 million into pre-seed and seed stage companies, and follows its capital through the life of the company. For more information, please visit www.hoxtonventures.com.

Company contact

Dr. Nik Sharma

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of BioCorteX

info@biocortex.com

Media inquiries

Hollie Vile, Optimum Strategic Communications

sofinnova@optimumcomms.com
+44 (0) 20 3922 0900