LongeVC invests in US startup Catena Biosciences

Latvian LongeVC has invested in the US startup Catena Biosciences. The total amount of the extended seed round was $2.35M. Existing investors California Innovation Fund, the US Civilization Ventures and Pioneer Fund, and new investors Freeflow from the US, Californian Caffeinated Capital, and the BrightEdge - American Cancer Society participated in the round.

Founded in 2020 by Marco Lobba, Geo Guillen, and Matthew Francis and spun out of the laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, CatenaBio has developed a platform, that allows the creation of novel biomolecules and further synthesize them in any structure, combination, or orientation. Using naturally occurring amino acids, the startup’s technology allows coupling proteins to create novel therapeutics in autoimmune diseases, oncology, and vaccine development. Autoimmune diseases cause the body to attack healthy cells, but Catena’s protein conjugation technique allows scientists to attach safe signals to healthy cells, tricking the immune system into no longer attacking them.

The startup plans to raise its next Series A later this year.

LongeVC is a venture company with offices in Riga and Lugano (Switzerland). It was established in 2016 by Garri Zmudze, Sergey Jakimov, and Ilya Suharenko. A €35M fund backs startups at the early and seed stages across the US and Europe.