Ascencia raises seed capital investment for further development of their lab digitization technology

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UTRECHT, Netherlands – Utrecht Health Seed Fund and imec.istart invest 300K+ euros in Ascenscia.

 

Ascenscia is an emerging tech startup in laboratory automation. Their product comprises a highly specialized voice assistant for scientific laboratories. It understands scientific terminologies and workflows efficiently and enables scientists to communicate with other lab systems by voice.

Ascenscia’s goal is to change the traditional ways of documenting scientific research on paper, which is affecting the quality and reproducibility of scientific data. Such inefficiencies cost scientists valuable time, cause distractions and contribute to loss of important data. Using Ascenscia is proven to save scientists time spent on manual documentation, enhance the quality of data captured in the lab and increase their productivity by lowering distractions.

Prior to this funding round, Ascenscia had raised 150K in government grants and convertible debt. Most recently, they were awarded a Rabo Innovation loan of 150K.

“We believe Ascencia’s application will be very appreciated by laboratory researchers around the world”, said Timo Koopmans, Investment manager at Utrecht Health Seed Fund. “Given its convenience of use and native integration with existing laboratory software, it has the potential to save precious time in the lab that can be spent on research instead of administration and documentation.”

“Ascenscia successfully participated in the imec.istart.nl acceleration program.” said Tim de Kraker, Venture Acceleration Manager at imec.istart.nl. “Seeing them validating their business case with potential customers and working towards product market fit, we have learned that their solution supports both medical and chemical R&D companies to develop faster and be better in re-producing experiments.”

The team is located at UtrechtInc, the university startup incubator in the heart of the Utrecht Science Park.

About Ascenscia

Ascenscia develops a highly specialized voice assistant phone app for scientific labs. It is built in a modular way to integrate seamlessly with various lab systems like ELNs, LIMS and machines. It enables scientists to access and document data through simple, hands-free voice commands.

Ascenscia media contact

Ahmed Khalil, a.khalil@ascenscia.ai, https://www.ascenscia.ai/

About Utrecht Health Seed Fund B.V.

Utrecht Health Seed Fund supports science-driven innovation in the field of Life Sciences and Health, with a strong economic tie to the province of Utrecht. In a stage of technological development where funding is often scarce, Utrecht Health Seed Fund aims to provide the capital needed to bridge the gap towards follow-on funding.

Utrecht Health Seed Fund media contact

Timo Koopmans, Investment Manager

timo.koopmans@utrechtholdings.nl

www.uhsf.nl

About imec.istart

imecistart.nl – the accelerator program founded by imec.istart and Novel-T – is the first investor and supporting partner to scale your tech startup. The imec.istart program offers a broad range of services such as initial financial injection (in the Netherlands 100,000 up to 250,000 EUR pre-seed funding), personal coaching and mentoring, access to technology and working facilities, access to a broad (inter)national network of partners and investors and more. Since its launch in 2011, imec.istart helped more than 300 tech startups in diverse fields to develop into sustainable ventures. imec.istart is ranked world’s best university linked Business Accelerator by UBI Global.

imec.istart.nl media contact

Cindy Marsman

c.marsman@novelt.com

www.imecistart.nl

Ascenscia is an emerging tech startup in laboratory automation. Their product comprises a highly specialized voice assistant for scientific laboratories. It understands scientific terminologies and workflows efficiently and enables scientists to communicate with other lab systems by voice.

Ascenscia’s goal is to change the traditional ways of documenting scientific research on paper, which is affecting the quality and reproducibility of scientific data. Such inefficiencies cost scientists valuable time, cause distractions and contribute to loss of important data. Using Ascenscia is proven to save scientists time spent on manual documentation, enhance the quality of data captured in the lab and increase their productivity by lowering distractions.

Prior to this funding round, Ascenscia had raised 150K in government grants and convertible debt. Most recently, they were awarded a Rabo Innovation loan of 150K.

“We believe Ascencia’s application will be very appreciated by laboratory researchers around the world”, said Timo Koopmans, Investment manager at Utrecht Health Seed Fund. “Given its convenience of use and native integration with existing laboratory software, it has the potential to save precious time in the lab that can be spent on research instead of administration and documentation.”

“Ascenscia successfully participated in the imec.istart.nl acceleration program.” said Tim de Kraker, Venture Acceleration Manager at imec.istart.nl. “Seeing them validating their business case with potential customers and working towards product market fit, we have learned that their solution supports both medical and chemical R&D companies to develop faster and be better in re-producing experiments.”

The team is located at UtrechtInc, the university startup incubator in the heart of the Utrecht Science Park.

About Ascenscia

Ascenscia develops a highly specialized voice assistant phone app for scientific labs. It is built in a modular way to integrate seamlessly with various lab systems like ELNs, LIMS and machines. It enables scientists to access and document data through simple, hands-free voice commands.

Ascenscia media contact

Ahmed Khalil, a.khalil@ascenscia.ai, https://www.ascenscia.ai/

About Utrecht Health Seed Fund B.V.

Utrecht Health Seed Fund supports science-driven innovation in the field of Life Sciences and Health, with a strong economic tie to the province of Utrecht. In a stage of technological development where funding is often scarce, Utrecht Health Seed Fund aims to provide the capital needed to bridge the gap towards follow-on funding.

Utrecht Health Seed Fund media contact

Timo Koopmans, Investment Manager

timo.koopmans@utrechtholdings.nl

www.uhsf.nl

About imec.istart

imecistart.nl – the accelerator program founded by imec.istart and Novel-T – is the first investor and supporting partner to scale your tech startup. The imec.istart program offers a broad range of services such as initial financial injection (in the Netherlands 100,000 up to 250,000 EUR pre-seed funding), personal coaching and mentoring, access to technology and working facilities, access to a broad (inter)national network of partners and investors and more. Since its launch in 2011, imec.istart helped more than 300 tech startups in diverse fields to develop into sustainable ventures. imec.istart is ranked world’s best university linked Business Accelerator by UBI Global.

imec.istart.nl media contact

Cindy Marsman

c.marsman@novelt.com

www.imecistart.nl

Synerkine Pharma secures EUR 12.1 million to accelerate novel pain therapeutics towards clinical proof-of-concept

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Our new portfolio company Synerkine Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company creating innovative pain solutions.

Leiden, the Netherlands, October 12, 2023

·     Flerie leads Series A extension with other existing investor Thuja Capital participating and NEW investors InnovationQuarter Capital and Utrecht Health Seed Fund joining the round

·     Complementing the Series a extension, Synerkine has received A matching RVO Innovation Credit from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency

·     The Total Proceeds of EUR 12.1 million will be used to advance synerkine’s LeaD product into clinical trials

Synerkine Pharma, a Dutch biopharmaceutical company creating innovative pain solutions, today announced an extension of its Series A financing led by Flerie with support from new investors, InnovationQuarter Capital and Utrecht Health Seed Fund, and existing investor Thuja Capital. The equity financing is accompanied by a matching innovation credit from Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend (RVO) Nederland – the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. The total new proceeds of EUR 12.1 million will be used to accelerate the development of Synerkine Pharma’s lead asset SK-01, a therapeutically active cytokine fusion protein, into clinical studies in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a severe chronic pain indication.

Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability globally and associated with enormous health-care costs. An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that the interaction between the nervous and immune systems plays an important role in the pathophysiology of pain. Synerkine Pharma operates in this area with a novel class of patented cytokine fusion proteins, called Synerkines, which combine two biologically relevant and synergistic anti-inflammatory cytokines. The mode-of-action aims to reverse the state of central sensitization, a heightened sensitivity to pain, holding the potential to fully reverse chronic pain. Synerkine Pharma’s lead molecule, SK-01, a fusion of the cytokines IL-4 and IL-10, targets multiple cell types and pathways involved in chronic pain and has demonstrated durable effects in a relevant animal model.

“A lack of innovation has held back the treatment of severe and chronic pain for years, and an overreliance on opioid medications has led to wide-reaching negative effects. We aim to reimagine chronic pain treatment with a novel first-in-class approach that could result in a long-term pain-resolving effect,” commented Hans Preusting, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Synerkine Pharma. “With the financial resources to advance our lead program into clinical trials secured, our focus will move towards establishing safety and proof-of-concept for our novel cytokine fusion approach. Our lead asset, SK-01, is progressing steadily towards the clinic, supported by a robust preclinical data package and with process development for larger scale manufacturing well underway.”

“Synerkine has achieved significant progress over the last 24 months and is well prepared to reach the next value inflection point of clinical readout. We look forward to working with current and new partners helping the team to unlock the potential of their novel disease-modifying biology with a unique mode-of-action,” commented Ted Fjällman, Chief Executive Officer of Flerie.

For a more detailed description of the current investors in Synerkine Pharma, we refer to our company website.

 

About Synerkine Pharma

Synerkine Pharma B.V. focuses on development of novel fusion proteins, called Synerkines, that combine the immunoregulatory activity of different cytokines. These fusion proteins have unique benefits over the individual cytokines and modulate a broad number of targets, including key elements in the pain pathway. This provides treatment options for chronic pain conditions with a clearly differentiated mechanism of action over current analgesic drugs and holds tremendous therapeutic and commercial potential. Synerkine Pharma B.V. was founded in 2018 as a spin-off of the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), the Netherlands.

 

 

For more information, please contact:

 

SYNERKINE PHARMA BV

Hans Preusting

Chief Executive Officer

E-mail: bd@synerkinepharma.com

Academic Startup Competition – 4th Edition – APPLICATIONS OPEN

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Dear Founder,

We are excited to announce that the applications for the 4th edition of the Academic Startup Competition are open!

The Academic Startup Competition (ASC) is a joint initiative of Techleap, UNL, NFU, NAE, UTwente, VU and EZK. The competition offers a curated batch of 20 selected academic startups the chance to showcase themselves to an audience of (international) investors and businesses. The startups that are in the race to become one of the best Academic Startups will participate in a unique program of workshops, promotion track and peer to peer learning to help the founders to accelerate the growth and scalability of their business. They will be introduced to the innovation ecosystem, and will be offered the opportunity to develop a network of peers, experts, and mentors.

For whom?

Within the Academic Startup Competition we are mainly interested in startups with solutions falling in one of the following eight broad impact domains:

  • Health & Wellbeing
  • Agriculture, Food & Water
  • Energy transition
  • Sustainability transition (Clean/Carbon/Green/Circular/Climate)
  • Secure Society (Cyber & Physical)
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusive Society
  • Smart Industry (4.0) : more efficient, flexible, and sustainable industrial systems and value chains
  • Smart Urbanisation / Cities

Eligibility criteria

Your company should:

  • Be addressing an industrial, societal or environmental unmet need or creating a new market within the 8 defined technology domains.
  • Be based on a new technology, a scientific discovery, a complex engineering process or a new disruptive systemic process.
  • Not have won the Academic Startup Competition Award in previous editions.
  • Have a registration at the C.o.C. (K.v.K.) that is between 0-3 years.
  • Be composed of a team of at least 2.
  • Be a registered commercial or impact startup originated from scientific knowledge connected to Dutch Universities, University Medical Centers or Research Institutes.
  • Not be a subsidiary or spin-off of an existing company.

What does Academic Startup Competition imply?

For the 20 winners of the competition a support package is available in the first six months of 2024 focusing on the following challenges:  

 

  1. Mindset Transition (Shifting from thinking like a scientist to thinking like an entrepreneur)
  2. Dare to think BIG
  3. Build your team (Who do you need to reach your goals)

 

To support the journey of overcoming these three challenges, winners will be offered additional services connected to each challenge:

 

  • 1-to-1 deep dives with entrepreneurs and experts to identify and sharpen their goals.
  • Peer knowledge-sharing by investors, experienced founders and experts.
  • Sessions with relevant stakeholders who are in power to change systems to help them grow faster.
  • Media coverage and exposure through various channels and events.
  • Joining various (inter) national networking trips and events.
  • Team assessment for the founders by a specialized agency.
  • Executive recruitment support .
  • Access to Global Campus to find the best scientific experts for their scientific board.

Join the competition!

Ready to take the plunge and catalyze the expansion and scalability of your venture? Then we invite you to join our competition. Make sure you apply here before 10 November 2023.

We are looking forward to receiving your application! If you have any questions about the programme or candidate requirements? Feel free to contact ruben@techleap.nl for more information or book an info session.

Warm regards,

Arjan Goudsblom, Ruben Habraken & Natasja Marchese

www.academicstartupcompetition.nl

UMC Utrecht spin-out Cordys Analytics secures investment for improved early detection of heart disease.

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UTRECHT, Netherlands – 3 oktober 2023

LUMO Labs, ROM Utrecht Region and Utrecht Health Seed Fund are investing 900,000 euros in Cordys Analytics. The startup is a Dutch healthtech spin-out from the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) and incubated at UtrechtInc.

 

Cordys Analytics’ AI-powered software platform for electrocardiogram analysis (AI-ECG software) offers a new and innovative solution to detect heart disease earlier and more accurately. By harnessing the power of advanced deep-learning techniques, this software identifies subtle patterns and abnormalities in ECG data that traditional diagnostic methods often miss.

The software supports healthcare professionals in making informed decisions and minimising hospitalizations and complications associated with untreated heart conditions. The vendor-agnostic software seamlessly connects various healthcare organisations and ECG devices, making it a versatile tool for healthcare professionals working in different clinical settings and regions across the globe.

Its cloud-based architecture provides operational benefits, such as real-time data analysis, remote accessibility and scalability. The proprietary interface makes it user-friendly.

“We are thrilled to have these investors on board. By joining their networks, we are well positioned to further expand our software platform and make it essential for clinical use,” said Cordys Analytics CEO John van den Berg. “Through our research collaboration with the UMCU, we will develop and refine AI-ECG algorithms and software and integrate our diagnostic services into the workflow of doctors and other healthcare professionals.”

“Integrating the unequalled potential of AI in healthcare for early detection and prevention not only has a tremendous impact on the quality of life of individual patients, but it also contributes to a more sustainable, affordable healthcare system,” said Andy Lürling, Founding Partner at LUMO Labs. “Cordys’ software has these qualities and – because it is vendor-agnostic – these benefits can scale wide and far. This fits LUMO Labs’ investment focus perfectly.”

“At ROM Utrecht Region we strongly believe in the potential impact of the algorithms developed by Cordys Analytics,” said Adinda Woelderink, Investment Manager at ROM Utrecht Region. “The amount of data generated within cardiology offers a unique opportunity for AI-powered ECG analysis to be supportive in workflows and optimised detection of ECG abnormalities.

“The Cordys team has all that is needed to bring this innovative solution further into the healthcare practice.”

“We are excited to invest in Cordys Analytics and team towards redefining the way ECG analysis and processing is done,” said Timo Koopmans, Investment Manager of Utrecht Health Seed Fund. “The team is well positioned to bring its technology to market so patients and healthcare providers alike can benefit.”

About Cordys Analytics
Cordys Analytics is a Dutch healthtech startup, founded in 2023, specialising in AI-powered software to analyse electrocardiograms (ECGs). The company is a member of UtrechtInc
and is a spin-out from the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU).

Cordys Analytics media contact
John van den Berg, CEO and Co-founder
john@cordys.health
http://cordys.health/

About TTT.AI
TTT.ai is a knowledge and investment consortium consisting of Dutch universities and LUMO Labs. Formed in 2020, the consortium’s aim is to advance the availability and relevance of artificial intelligence innovations within society. The consortium was awarded a subsidy of eight million euros for pre-seed funding and knowledge transfer to startups. This is a subsidy from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency’s (RVO) Technology Transfer (TTT) scheme. The investment in Cordys Analytics is the sixth investment under the TTT.ai scheme.

About LUMO Labs
LUMO Labs creates opportunities for impact-driven software and smart hardware startups. The current LUMO Fund II is an impact-driven multi-stage capital fund (pre-seed up to and
including series A). It includes a two-year venture builder program to support its portfolio companies in gaining financial success as well as social traction and impact.
LUMO Labs funds startups that align with at least one of the three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Sustainable Cities & Communities, Good Health & Well- Being and Quality Education. Its investment focus includes Artificial Intelligence/Data, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Robotics and Drones and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality.
LUMO Labs media contact
Andy Lürling, Founding Partner
andy@lumolabs.io
https://lumolabs.io/

 

About ROM Utrecht Region
The Healthy Urban Living Proof of Concept (HUL- PoC) Fund invests in the major transition sectors that are important for tomorrow's economy: Digital, Health, and Sustainability. The fund is commissioned by the ERDF and local governments from the Utrecht area.
Together with private investors, we invest in companies developing highly innovative products that we wish to see in our ideal future society and have the ambition to become scalable businesses
ROM Utrecht Region media contact
Adinda Woelderink, Investment Manager Life Sciences & Health
adinda@romutrechtregion.nl
www.romutrechtregion.nl

About Utrecht Health Seed Fund B.V.
Utrecht Health Seed Fund supports science-driven innovation in the field of Life Sciences and Health, with a strong economic tie to the province of Utrecht. In a stage of technological development where funding is often scarce, Utrecht Health Seed Fund aims to provide the capital needed to bridge the gap towards follow-on funding.
Utrecht Health Seed Fund media contact
Timo Koopmans, Investment Manager
timo.koopmans@utrechtholdings.nl
www.uhsf.nl