Jülich-based biotech startup SRTD Biotech has raised €31.5 million in a Seed funding round. The company focuses on developing advanced mRNA treatments designed to target specific diseases. The funding round was oversubscribed.

The funding was led by Mérieux Equity Partners, with NRW.BANK and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund also joining as co-leads.

Other investors in the round included Lilly Ventures, HTGF and Freiburg-based family office Anobis Asset.

“Having worked closely with the company to strengthen its strategy, build its leadership team and establish a scalable platform, we are delighted to lead this financing with our Mérieux Innovation 2 fund (MI2) alongside an exceptional group of investors,” said Kristin Thompson, Director at Mérieux Equity Partners.

Founded in 2019 in Jülich by Dr. Bernd Hoffmann and Dr. Heribert Bohlen, SRTD Biotech has developed a technology that allows mRNA treatments to work only inside specific target cells. The technology uses RNA markers found inside cells to activate mRNA only in the cells affected by a disease.

The company says its technology, called selectively expressed RNA (seRNA), helps deliver treatments directly to diseased cells. This can reduce the treatment’s effect on healthy cells and limit their exposure to the medicine.

“The proceeds will enable SRTD to advance Bernd’s vision of delivering safe, effective, and differentiated RNA therapeutics to patients whose diseases remain inadequately addressed by current therapies,” said Alder.

“SRTD Biotech shows how cutting-edge research from North Rhine-Westphalia can open up new ways to treat many diseases with significant unmet medical needs. Bringing innovations like these from research into medical practice takes capital. With our investment in SRTD Biotech, we are helping a highly innovative company develop a promising new technology in NRW and scale it internationally from here,” Johanna Antonie Tjaden-Schulte, Member of NRW.BANK’s Managing Board.

NRW.BANK is investing in SRTD Biotech through its NRW.Venture EU Tech&Scale fund. As part of its partnership with the European Commission under the InvestEU programme, the bank has secured a guarantee agreement that allows it to provide up to €200 million in additional funding to growing startups through this fund.