Biotech startup Pandorum Technologies has bagged $18 Mn (INR 163 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by Protons Corporate, with participation from Galentic Pharma, Noblevast Advisory and Avinya Fund, Burman Family, alongside existing investor Ashish Kacholia, among others.
The fresh capital will be deployed to advance the Bengaluru-based startup’s bid to develop disease-modifying, tunable, exosome-based therapies, including Kuragenx. A portion of the capital will also be allocated to scale its global manufacturing and expand operations across the US, Japan, and the Middle East.
“This funding would enable us to translate breakthrough science into programmable, disease-modifying therapies, beginning with single-tissue applications and scaling to multi-tissue repair,” cofounder and CEO Tuhin Bhowmick said.
Founded by Bhowmick and Arun Chandru in 2011, Pandorum Technologies is a biotech startup working on regenerating human tissues in the lab.
The startup is trying to grow or repair damaged parts of the human body — such as the cornea, liver and lung tissue — using a combination of cells, biomaterials and bio-engineering.
Instead of relying on donor organs, the startup develops lab-engineered tissues that can help the body heal or restore lost function. Its lead work includes a bio-engineered corneal therapy aimed at treating corneal blindness, as well as tissue models used for drug testing and disease research.
Pandorum’s primary focus is on ocular surface diseases, such as Stevens–Johnson Syndrome and Neurotrophic Keratitis, and its solution Kuragenx has received U.S. FDA Orphan Drug Designation.
The startup has raised over $32 Mn from investors like IAN Fund, 021 Capital, among others.
The funding round comes at a time when advanced therapies and diagnostics for complex medical conditions are gaining momentum in India. Speaking in July last year, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said the number of biotechnology ventures in the country has grown from around 50 to nearly 11,000 over the past decade, adding that the government is committed to building a $300 Bn bioeconomy by 2030.
On this note, investors are betting on this growing market opportunity, where CrisprBits secured $3 Mn (INR 26.8 Cr) last November, to commercialise its PathCrisp molecular diagnostics platform and augment the production capacity for high-impact tests.
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