Targeted delivery of regenerative cargo to the brain and specific tissues has been a major challenge in central nervous-system repair. Thanks to SCI Venture's investment, ViaNautis' breakthrough technology is now pointed for the first time at chronic SCI regeneration. The Cambridge (UK)-based biotech is backed by big pharma companies including UCB Pharma and Eli Lilly.
Invested in breaking
through paralysis
Invested in breaking through paralysis
SCI Ventures is a specialist fund created to catalyze innovative cures for paralysis.
Backed by leading scientific foundations and clinical centers
Our approach
A specialist venture fund to accelerate cures and treatments for paralysis
We are a dedicated team of investors, entrepreneurs, clinicians and neuroscientists, backed by the leading research foundations and clinical centers for paralysis. By investing in early-stage companies we catalyze symptomatic and curative treatments for paralysis, starting with spinal-cord injury and related markets.
What’s at stake
20m
People live with spinal cord
injury worldwide
$4m
The average lifetime cost of paraplegia and tetraplegia
<39yrs
Spinal cord injury is most likely to affect people in the prime of their life
Portfolio
We invest globally in companies with the greatest potential to impact our mission, typically at the Seed - Series B stages.
NervGen Pharma is developing drug treatments that allow the central nervous system to regenerate itself. The company recently demonstrated - for the first time ever -functionally meaningful improvement of motor-recovery in people who have been chronically living with paralysis due to spinal-cord injury for years in a recent Ph1b / 2a trial. Following this success the company raised $60M in a public offering (Nasdaq) to advance to registrational trials.
Axonis Therapeutics is developing medicines for neuron restoration and neuromodulation. Therapies are aimed at enabling neural tissue to resist degeneration, restore healthy electrical balance, and promote neural regeneration. Successful pre-clinical POC studies have been completed, and a clinical trial is planned for 2024 / 25.
Investment Strategy
From the lab to the clinic, faster
We invest in the best companies, built around the most innovative and rigorous scientific advancements, with the greatest potential to impact the lives of those living with spinal cord injury.
Team
Professionals with a personal investment
Our team combines entrepreneurial expertise, excellence in neuroscience and intensely personal dedication to curing spinal cord injury.
Tom Londres
Board Member, Reeve Foundation
CEO, Metro Commercial, Inc.
Ian Curtis
Board Member, ISRT and Reeve Foundation
Chairman, HPC plc, Former PwC Partner
Adrien Cohen
Founding Managing Director,
Board & Investment Committee Member
Roman Rothaermel, PhD
Investment Principal
Biotech Operator, PhD Neuroscience University of Oxford
Everyone involved in SCI Ventures is committed to seeing more therapeutic options for people living with the injury. We believe promising scientific innovations will only become clinical therapies when entrepreneurs can access early-stage funding and guidance. Our fund has been created to prove that spinal cord injury is both treatable and investable.
Ian Curtis
Director
In the press
