Sofinnova backs UK antibody specialist

French VC Sofinnova Partners has led a £4.5m seed round in UK life sciences business Crescendo Biologics.

The Cambridge-based company, which is developing an antibody technology platform which will work with the fragments of antibody molecules, has also received backing from Aitua, a UK commercialiser of intellectual property the life science sector, Avlar BioVentures, a British seed and early stage investor in biotech and healthcare companies, and the Rainbow Seed Fund, a government-backed seed capital fund dedicated to investing in technologies that arise out of publicly funded research.

Crescendo’s technologies were created at The Babraham Institute, a Cambridge facility aimed at researching the relationship between molecular mechanisms and cellular processes and functions.

Graziano Seghezzi, partner at Sofinnova, said: “Antibodies have proved to be extremely effective therapeutics commanding huge market value and there is a great deal of demand from within the pharmaceutical industry for next-generation antibody technologies that can underpin further growth. We believe that Crescendo has the right technology, IP, expertise and vision to become a world-leading next generation antibody developer.”