Investors
Emergence is supported by a network of world-leading experts in immuno-oncology and leading European investors. Kurma Partners led the Company’s seed funding round and acted as the originator and incubator investor. Further investors and partners include Bpifrance, Gründerfonds Ruhr, Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH, High-Tech Gründerfonds, idinvest Partners and NRW.Bank.
ETX Investors
& Partners
Bpi France
Bpifrance is the French national investment bank: it finances businesses – at every stage of their development – through loans, guarantees, equity investments and export insurances. Bpifrance also provides extra financial services (training, consultancy) to help entrepreneurs meet their challenges (innovation, export…).
InnoBio 2 is an investment fund dedicated to life sciences, managed by Bpifrance, which is also one of the LPs alongside Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, Takeda, Ipsen and Servier. InnoBio 2, with a first closing at €135 million, aims to invest in companies developing innovative products and services, close to or in early clinical development, with the objective of bringing them until the clinical proof of concept. InnoBio 2 takes minority equity stake in companies and can lead or co-lead the investment rounds.
Kurma
Founded in July 2009, Kurma Partners is a key European player with offices in Paris and Munich in the financing of innovation in healthcare and biotechnology, from pre-creation to growth capital, notably through Kurma Biofund I through III and Kurma Diagnostics, as well as via strategic partnerships with prestigious European research and medical institutions. The new fund Kurma Biofund III invests in private companies, addressing high unmet medical and patient needs with a portfolio of approximately twelve to fifteen companies, 40% of which early stage financings and company creations like Emergence Therapeutics.
Gründerfonds Ruhr
Jointly initiated by Initiativkreis Ruhr and NRW.BANK, Gründerfonds Ruhr is the first private-sector early-stage fund in the Ruhr region to be financed by regional industrial and financial companies. The fund invests in innovative and technology-oriented companies in the life science & health, digital economy, chemicals & new materials, energy & industry and logistics & trade sectors. Good growth and exit prospects as well as competent management are prerequisites. As a multi-corporate early-stage fund Gründerfonds Ruhr also opens up important industry access opportunities for the respective portfolio companies.
Heidelberg Pharma
Heidelberg Pharma is an oncology specialist and the first company to develop the toxin Amanitin into cancer therapies using its proprietary Antibody Targeted Amanitin Conjugate (ATAC) technology and to advance the biological mode of action of the toxin as a novel therapeutic principle. Amatoxins are small bicyclic peptides naturally occurring in the death cap mushroom. They inhibit mRNA transcription by binding to RNA polymerase II, a mechanism that is crucial for the survival of eukaryotic cells. In preclinical testing, ATACs have been shown to be highly efficacious, overcoming frequently encountered resistance mechanisms and combating even quiescent tumor cells. This technology platform is being applied to develop the Company’s proprietary therapeutic ATACs as well as in third-party collaborations to create a variety of ATAC candidates. Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH is a biopharmaceutical company based in Ladenburg, Germany, held by Heidelberg Pharma AG, which is listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange: ISIN DE000A11QVV0 / Symbol WL6.
High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is a seed investor that finances high-potential, tech-driven start-ups. With around EUR 900 million in total investment volume across three funds and an international network of partners, HTGF has already helped forge almost 600 start-ups since 2005. Driven by their expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion, its team of experienced investment managers and startup experts help guide the development of young companies. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital business models, industrial technology, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected over EUR 2.4 billion into the HTGF portfolio via more than 1,500 follow-on financing rounds. HTGF has also successfully sold interests in more than 100 companies.
Investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, KfW Capital, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and 32 companies.
idinvest Partners
Idinvest Partners is a leading European mid-market private equity firm. With €8bn under management, the firm has developed several areas of expertise including innovative startup venture capital transactions; mid-market private debt, i.e. single-tranche, senior and subordinated debt; primary and secondary investment and private equity advisory services. Founded in 1997, Idinvest Partners used to belong to the Allianz Group until 2010, when it branched out as an independent firm. In January 2018, Idinvest Partners became a subsidiary of Eurazeo, a leading global investment company, with a diversified portfolio of €17bn in assets under management, including approximately €11bn from investment partners, invested in over 350 companies.
NRW.Bank
NRW.BANK is the state development bank of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its mission is to support its owner – the state of North Rhine-Westphalia – in the completion of its structural and economic policy tasks. In its three fields of promotion “Economic Development”, “Housing Promotion” and “Infrastructure/Municipal Promotion”, NRW.BANK uses a wide range of promotion tools – from low-interest promotion loans to equity finance to advisory services. It cooperates with all banks and savings banks based in NRW on a competition-neutral basis. NRW.BANK takes into account the existing offers by the Federal Government, the North Rhine-Westphalian government and the European Union in the arrangement of its promotion.