Antabio, the biopharmaceutical antibacterial drug discovery company, and WiSEED, the French crowdfunding platform dedicated to innovative & technologic startups, announce the successful completion of their seed round of financing with a profitable exit of the initial small investors, a world premiere in the field of crowdfunding applied to biotech start-up financing.
“It is the very first complete virtuous circle for crowdfunding applied to biotech start-ups” explain Nicolas Seres and Thierry Merquiol, founders of WiSEED. Initially funded by more than 200 small investors, Antabio’s seed funding round allowed the company to finance a key step in the validation of its drug candidate molecules.
“WiSEED’s innovative crowdfunding process allowed us to complete Antabio’s seed financing in a record time. The success of this first round had a rapid leveraging effect: a second investment from a business angel further funded the development of our drug candidates, which in turn aroused the interest of a major industrial player in the drug discovery arena. Today, WiSEED’s exit with a significant return is a fair reward of the risk taken by being our initial investors” stresses Marc Lemonnier, CEO and founder of Antabio. “This is a world-premiere encouraging the emergence of a new seed funding model for innovative biopharmaceutical startup companies”.
“Beyond the return on investment, this deal is emblematic of the relevance of crowdfunding. It allowed setting the wheels in motion at a time when most financial actors decline the opportunity because of the high risk and relatively small amounts at stake. It fosters a cascade of wealth-creation that allows entrepreneurs to focus on their business and core expertise. However, it is important to quickly reward small investors and keep them focused on this seed phase so that they can reinvest in another project, to reinitiate a novel entrepreneurial adventure” states Nicolas Seres, managing director of WiSEED.
“Based on this success-story applied to start-up seed funding, the path is open for a genuine revolution in the investment landscape: venture-capital 2.0 is underway!” concludes Thierry Merquiol, CEO of WiSEED, proud of this world premiere.
About Antabio
Antabio is a private biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibacterial resistance-breakers to treat drug-resistant infections in areas of highest unmet medical need. Two of Antabio’s programs have received Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Awards to date: [i] a novel, safe and efficacious inhibitor of bacterial metallo ß-lactamases to be combined with a carbapenem for the treatment of drug-resistant nosocomial infections and [ii] a first-in-class inhibitor of Pseudomonas virulence to be co-administered with standard-of-care antibiotics for the long-term management of chronic respiratory infections. The company’s lead product is expected to enter the clinic in 2019 with a fast track to anticipated marketing approval by 2021. Antabio has built a best in class, international team of experts in the field and is currently seeking to raise additional funds to progress its pipeline up to the next value inflection point. The Company is also looking to in-license additional assets focused on Gram-negative antibiotic resistant therapies. Please visit www.antabio.com and follow us on Twitter @antabio
About WiSEED
WiSEED is a French crowdfunding platform dedicated to innovative & technologic startups, offering a new investment horizon in sustainable, responsible, performance-driven start-up companies. Its originality: investments can be made directly online. With a few clicks, each private investor can become a shareholder of selected companies, starting from 100€ www.wiseed.fr.