Successfully promoting new approaches to antibacterial therapies: INCATE celebrates its two-year anniversary
Providing support to a growing portfolio of project teams and start-ups
The INCubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe, INCATE, can point to an impressive series of successes on its two-year anniversary. With direct contact to more than 180 start-ups and initiatives, a thriving portfolio of 24 project teams—and more in the pipeline—as well as valuable partnerships that have propelled the collaborative project forward, INCATE is a role model in its field. The German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) is one of INCATE's founding members.
Launched in August 2021, INCATE aims to support innovators in the early stages of developing therapies in the field of antimicrobial resistance. Through advisory services and the provision of contacts to relevant experts and the industry, as well as funding, the project enables start-ups to develop convincing business concepts in order to attract investors.
Since its inception two years ago, INCATE has been contacted by over 180 start-ups and projects and received more than 80 applications. The incubator's main achievements include building a solid pipeline for new project teams and providing essential support to 24 project teams in funding stage I so far. The current portfolio of project teams in stage I includes ventures from 15 countries, more than half of which were not yet established as independent companies when they first contacted INCATE. The project teams' selected technologies in the fight against pathogenic bacteria include approaches such as direct-acting small molecules and peptides or bacteriophages. With Invitris, one of the 24 supported project teams has already been in funding stage II since January 2023. Through the successful acquisition of equity investments and important cooperation partners, several other of the supported ventures in stage I have also reached "investable stage" status. Further stage II investments are planned for the beginning of 2024.
About INCATE
INCATE is a not-for-profit partnership which brings together translational and basic research, industry, experienced entrepreneurs and investors from across Europe and beyond. The German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research AntiResist, the University of Basel and the Leibniz-HKI are the academic founding members of INCATE with the University of Basel as virtual host. Together with the four industry partners Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Roche, Shionogi and MSD Germany as well as other organisations, funders and investors, INCATE wants to ensure that the pipeline of new antibiotics and diagnostics is filled and strengthened. Since its inception in August 2021, INCATE has made five rounds of stage I funding of €10,000 per selected company. From these stage I recipients, Invitris was selected as the first venture for stage II funding of €250,000 in January 2023.
Source: Press release of INCATE
