Slovak biotechnological company Glycanostics has been selected as one of 65 innovative start-ups and SMEs out of more than 4,000 applicants to receive funding under the fully-fledged European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator. The company, which operates in the field of early cancer diagnosis, is the third in Slovakia’s history to receive an EIC grant, worth almost €2 million. The funds will be used to complete the development of the diagnostic test, its clinical validations, patenting biomarkers, as well as preparing it for the CE registration process, which is necessary for its commercialization on the market. This is an excellent signal for private investors who expressed their trust in the potential of the product and the Glycanostics team. The company secured an investment worth a total of EUR 1 million at the beginning of September from a syndicate of investors on the Crowdberry platform and CB Growth ONE investment fund.

The EIC Accelerator is a European Innovation Council (EIC) financial scheme and part of the Horizon Europe programme. Its goal is to support further development of breakthrough innovative solutions from start-ups and SMEs, with a significant part of the programme focusing on strategic innovations in healthcare, as well as digital technologies and projects supporting the goals of the European Green Deal. This year, the European Innovation Council has distributed a total of €136 million in the form of grants to 65 European companies, including the one for Glycanostics. An additional €227 million is available to companies as equity investment from the EIC fund.

“Winning this prestigious grant is a recognition of our 10 years of research and development as well as a great expression of trust. It also proves that Slovakia is home to ground-breaking and innovative solutions. We are delighted to play an integral part in shaping the Slovak biotech industry, which is now gaining more importance than ever before,” says Eva Kováčová, CEO of Glycanostics.

“As we communicated to the EIC jury, for us it is mainly a question of values. We have developed a disruptive technology that could help save the lives of millions around the world. At Glycanostics, we perceive it as our duty to make this innovation available to patients around the globe as quicky as possible. At the same time, we want to create new jobs with high added value in Slovakia and thus help talented people to take part in shaping our future,” she adds.

Glycanostics was founded in 2017 by two internationally recognised Slovak scientists – Ján Tkáč and Tomáš Bertók, both originally from the Institute of Chemistry of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The company focuses on early cancer diagnosis and aims to bring an accurate, non-invasive and affordable prostate cancer test to the market. It is a novel method based on a blood-based assay that has the potential to be applied to 10 other types of cancer and has global commercial potential. In the area of business development, the company is supported by Eva Kováčová, who joined the team at the beginning of this year. She brings many years of experience in the area of complex international pharmaceutical mergers, acquisitions and licensing processes.

“Health is immensely important to each and every one of us, and thanks to the talented people at Glycanostics, the market will soon have the most advanced method for early and accurate prostate cancer diagnostics. It could save many lives all over the world. Moreover, the fast-growing segment of biotech,  value of which is growing globally, is surely destined to success. These are the factors that convinced Crowdberry’s investors to provide the company with growth capital. This sends a clear message that, instead of owning the shares of a listed US company, investors prefer to co-own Glycanostics and take part in bringing a Slovak product to the global market,” says Branislav Hóz, Investment Manager at Crowdberry.

At the beginning of September, the Crowdberry investment platform that enables direct investments in dynamic Czech and Slovak companies and real estate, provided Glycanostics with growth investment of €1 million. The provided capital was financed in co-investment together with the CB Growth ONE investment fund. Glycanostics is the third company from Crowberry’s portfolio (after MultiplexDX and Sensoneo) and the third in Slovakia’s history to have received an EIC grant.

ABOUT GLYCANOSTICS

The Slovak company Glycanostics was founded in 2017 with the aim to bring reliable, early-stage, painless, quick and affordable diagnostics and monitoring of oncological disorders. Its primary goal is innovative cancer diagnostics in fields where current methods are either inaccurate or do not offer early-stage diagnostics. . The first test based on Glycanostics’ innovative technology will be for prostate cancer, followed by breast, pancreas, lung, ovarian, liver, thyroid, stomach, colorectal, testicular and kidney cancer. The company encompasses know-how from the fields of biomedical research of innovative oncological disorders diagnostics with the use of nano-materials; as well as knowledge of strategy and finance in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries, management, regulations and certification of medical devices. With the help of finances provided by Crowdberry investors and the European Council, the company has high potential to bring its technology to the market.

www.glycanostics.com

ABOUT CROWDBERRY

The Crowdberry investment platform allows private investors to invest directly in Czech and Slovak companies and real estate. It has been changing the way companies are financed since 2015. Companies can raise capital for growth and business development in a transparent way with the possibility of integrating their customers into the ownership structure and gaining access to the ecosystem of innovative companies known as smart investors and partners. So far, Crowdberry investors have provided capital worth more than €30 million to companies such as Footshop, GymBeam, MultiplexDX, Boataround, Ecocapsule, and others. At the beginning of 2021, the company introduced a real estate fund of qualified investors in Prague, CB Property Investors, that focused on investments in real estate with the potential for increasing value. In Slovakia, Crowdberry manages an investment fund in the amount of €23 million through a subsidiary called CB Investment Management to support start-ups.

www.crowdberry.eu

More about the European Innovation Council (EIC): https://eic.ec.europa.eu/about-european-innovation-council_en

More about the EIC Accelerator programme: https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-funding-opportunities/eic-accelerator_en

Press materials EIC: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/home/en