The Portuguese venture capital firm Biovance Capital led an €11 million Series A funding round in the Spanish biotech company Vaxdyn, in which it invested four million euros. The operation also counted on participation from the European Innovation Council fund and the Impacto Andalucía Innovación y Desarrollo fund, managed by Arcano Partners, and was complemented by grants from the EIC Accelerator and CARB-X.
The funding will allow Vaxdyn to advance to clinical evaluation of its K-VAX vaccine through a Phase 1 trial aimed at assessing its use in preventing infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii. The company, based in Seville, develops vaccines against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli, using a proprietary technology platform.
Antimicrobial resistance constitutes one of the major public health threats, causing approximately 541,000 deaths annually in Europe and 204,000 in the United States, totaling approximately five million deaths per year worldwide. Without effective intervention, this number could reach 10 million deaths annually by 2050, according to data released by Vaxdyn.
For Biovance Capital, this is the third investment from the Biovance Capital Fund I and the second made in Southern Europe. The firm manages a €60 million fund dedicated to investments in early-stage biotechnology companies in Portugal and Europe, with support from the European Investment Fund, the European Commission, the Portuguese Development Bank, and pharmaceutical company BIAL.
