Quick Take:
- Octarine Bio ApS announced the successful closing of seed financing for $1.8M.
- The financing was led by the Danish State Growth Fund (Vækstfonden) with participation from Enexis AB, Oskare Capital and cannabis and psychedelic industry veteran Bruce Linton.
Today, Octarine Bio ApS (“Octarine” or the “Company”), a synthetic biology company developing biosynthetic platforms for cannabinoids, psychedelics and their novel improved derivatives announced the successful closing of Seed financing led by the Danish State Growth Fund (Vækstfonden) with participation from Enexis AB, Oskare Capital and cannabis and psychedelic industry veteran Bruce Linton. This latest financing comes shortly after the company closed a pre-seed round earlier this year, bringing the total amount raised by the company to over $1.8M USD.
In these uncertain times we’re thrilled to be able to close our next round of financing. We’re excited to welcome new investors on board but also very pleased to receive follow-on investment from existing investors and greatly appreciate their continued support and belief in our team and the mission.”
Nethaji Gallage – Octarine Co-founder and CEO
“Octarine has shown significant progress since our first investment in the beginning of 2020” said Lene Gerlach, investment manager at Vækstfonden, “and we’ve experienced a great interest in the company both from investors and large market players. They, as well as us at Vækstfonden see great potential in Octarine’s platform technology, which is based on ground-breaking research from the University of Copenhagen and Technical University of Denmark. We believe Octarine will play an important role in improving both the manufacturing and the characteristics of complex natural compounds.”
“We identified Octarine in April of 2019 as a company with a very high potential to disrupt the medical cannabis market through its set of proprietary novel compounds. We are happy to be joining forces with Vækstfonden, Enexis and other business angels, who share the same vision as Oskare Capital on Octarine’s potential in the cannabinoid and psychedelic space,” said Alexandre OUIMET-STORRS, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Oskare Capital.
Proceeds from the round will be used to obtain important pre-clinical validation of the company’s novel, improved cannabinoid derivatives in in vivo animal models. In vitro data has demonstrated significant improvements in solubility, stability, and bioavailability of these molecules over natural cannabinoids and the company expects to be able to generate a lead candidate for further clinical development.
“Solubility, stability, and bioavailability are significant issues currently limiting the therapeutic application of cannabinoids” said Octarine Co-founder and CSO Nick Milne. “With the improved derivatives in our pipeline we’re confident that we can realise the full potential of cannabinoids to treat a range of debilitating conditions.”
Proceeds will also be used to continue development of the company’s fermentation-based production platforms for pharmaceutical-grade psychedelics including psilocybin and a range of other rare and novel derivatives. These platforms will be used to supply molecules for strategic partners as well as for Octarine’s own drug development efforts.
About Octarine
Octarine’s mission is to solve our greatest health challenges by enabling innovative cannabinoid and psychedelic therapeutics. Many neurological and psychological conditions are poorly served by current drugs, leaving physicians, patients, and their families desperately seeking alternative therapies, sometimes illegally. Cannabinoids and psychedelics are poised to offer breakthrough therapies for these debilitating conditions, but to realize the full potential of these molecules, issues with their production and undesirable properties must first be solved.
Octarine is perfecting a biological approach to producing improved & novel cannabinoid and psychedelic molecules with tailored modes-of-action. Our proprietary technology combines synthetic biology, yeast fermentation and enzymatic derivatization to develop IP protected drug candidates that are validated in pre-clinical models.
Octarine was founded in September 2018 by Nethaji Gallage (CEO) and Nick Milne (CSO) based on foundational research conducted at the University of Copenhagen and Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Octarine is also an alumnus of the BioInnovation Institute, an initiative run by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.