Cure51, a Techbio company seeking to unlock the biological mechanisms responsible for exceptional survivors among cancer patients, today announced that it has successfully raised €15 million in a seed funding round led by Sofinnova Partners. Other investors included: Hitachi Ventures GmbH, Life Extension Ventures, Xavier Niel, and Olivier Pomel, CEO, and co-founder of Datadog.
The funding received will enable Cure51 to build a unique cohort, exploring the molecular processes by which certain cancer patients survive for very extended periods of time despite having highly aggressive forms of the disease. The company seeks to unlock these mechanisms to enable every patient to become an exceptional survivor with new insights for precision medicine and drug target discovery. Key to this endeavor are the new analytical techniques and the strong partnership the company has forged with leading oncology centers worldwide.
Cure51 was founded in March 2022 by Nicolas Wolikow and Simon Istolainen, alongside seasoned entrepreneurs and four world-renowned oncology centers: Gustave Roussy Institute (IGR, Paris – France), Leon Bérard Center (CLB, Lyon – France), Charité Universitätsmedizin (Berlin – Germany), and Vall d’Hebron (VHIO, Barcelona – Spain). The aim is to pioneer the creation of the world’s first global clinical and molecular database of cancer survivors, by rewriting the narrative of cancer. Rather than focusing on the disease mechanisms, Cure51 studies outliers – those individuals who defy statistics and miraculously survive the most aggressive forms of cancer, including metastatic stage pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma.
Nicolas Wolikow lived 4 years in Dubai where he managed International SOS in the UAE and in Middle East and Africa, a leading company in medical services, medical assistance and security services provided to companies in various sectors ranging from Energy and Mining, to Banking, Technology and Hospitality.
