Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), Zernike META Ventures, through the Ingenium Emilia Romagna II Fund, and Atlante Seed are to invest in the growth of CellPly, an Italian start up specialised in molecular diagnostics.
The overall investment will come to over EUR2m and will involve the same business team as well as venture capital funds and numerous business angels that will take part in the operation.
It represents one of the biggest seed capital investments carried out in Italy and seeks to contribute to the completion of the prototyping phase of the diagnostics platform developed by CellPly.
The Cellply technology platform will make it possible to verify cellular response to anti-tumour drugs in-vitro (rather than directly in the patient), assisting the decisions of oncologists and doctors with predictive data. Cellply will lead to important advancements in the personalised treatment of cancer, providing diagnostic tools to define and monitor in-vitro the patient's response to pharmacological treatments such as chemotherapy and monoclonal antibody treatment.
The platform under development is based on micro devices, an analysis tool and software that can extract the first data on the cellular response to the treatment within a couple of hours.
"We want to provide oncologists and anatomical pathologists with new solutions that help them establish the best form of treatment for each patient. The emergence of three investors in this first round of investment is great news for our team and confirmation of the enormous potential of the Cellply technology platform in terms of both marketing and innovation in the area of cancer treatment," says Massimo Bocchi, chairman and CEO of Cellply.
“This project has attracted as many as 37 partners because it is an extremely important project in the area of cancer diagnostics. We are delighted to support this ambitious start-up, which we will support like real angels, accompanying it on its growth path which we are certain will have a major impact," says Antonio Leone, partner and director of Italian Angels for Growth, identified by the angel group as the representative for the investment in CellPly.
CellPly is the product of the University of Bologna research group coordinated by Professor Roberto Guerrieri, co-founder of the start-up.
