KIKK Capital participates in 1.8 million seed investment for the discovery of two new drugs for heart failure
River BioMedics, a drug discovery company using advanced 3D human cardiac models, today announced the closure of a 1.8 million Euro seed funding round to progress its research and innovation programs for cardiovascular disease targets and compounds. River BioMedics addresses the high unmet medical need of cardiac diseases, with a focus on heart failure. The financing round was co-led by FIRST fund, KIKK Capital and Oost NL. River BioMedics is part of the valorisation Springboard program of RegMed XB and DCVA that supports start-ups with dedicated mentors.
New treatment for heart failure
Heart failure affects 55 million people worldwide, with a healthcare cost of more than €30 billion per year in Europe alone. Many of the current available medicines merely treat the symptoms of disease rather than targeting the underlying cause. Although in recent years there has been an attempt to find drugs that target the underlying biological mechanisms of the disease this has been hampered by the lack of good human predictive models for use in target validation and drug discovery. River BioMedics believes their human-predictive in vitro 3D heart models will address this issue. With the current financing round, River BioMedics will start 2 drug discovery programs on cardiac specific targets.
About River BioMedics
River BioMedics was founded in 2020 as a spin-out from the University of Twente’s department of Applied Stem Cell Technologies. The team has built a suite of 3D cardiac models including, 3D cardiac strips, heart-on-a-chip and the highly innovative mini heart, to support their drug discovery programs and enable partnerships. The company will be based in Enschede, The Netherlands and operate out of its offices at the campus of the University of Twente (Enschede).
About the funders
KIKK Capital invests in young companies that have developed and recently launched a new product, process or service.
Fonds InvesteringsRijpe STarters (FIRST), managed by BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), is a pre-seed fund that finances pioneering scientists in The Netherlands active in the emerging fields of regenerative medicine and cardiovascular diseases.
Oost NL (East Netherlands Development Agency) is an agency that focuses its activities and projects on strengthening and stimulating the economy of the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel, the Netherlands.
For more information: https://www.riverbiomedics.com
