Aachen-based PL BioScience closes Series A for 7.8 million euros

Aachen, August 9, 2024 — PL BioSci­ence GmbH, pioneer in the field of sustainable, animal-free cell culture media, has successfully closed a Series A financing.
The finan­cing round attrac­ted signi­fi­cant invest­ments from AVANT BIO (New York), LePure Biotech (Shang­hai), b.value AG (Dort­mund) and better ventures (Munich).
The four part­ners contri­bute their expe­ri­ence in deep tech, life scien­ces and health tech.
The consor­tium joins a group of exis­ting inves­tors led by Bright­lands Venture Part­ners (Geleen) and Tech­Vi­sion Fonds (Aachen), who have once again pled­ged their support for the Aachen-based biotech company’s mission.
PL BioScience’s inno­va­tive Human Plate­let Lysate (HPL) tech­no­logy enables breakth­rough deve­lo­p­ments in cell therapy.
“We look forward to conti­nuing our support for PL BioSci­ence and its outstan­ding HPL products in the coming years toge­ther with this great consor­tium of inves­tors,” says Bern­hard Kugel, Mana­ging Part­ner of the Tech­Vi­sion Fund.
Dr. Luc Starm­ans, Part­ner at Bright­lands Venture Part­ners, also expres­ses his contin­ued commit­ment: “We warmly congra­tu­late the team and welcome our new part­ners on this exci­ting jour­ney. Toge­ther, we look forward to buil­ding on PL BioScience’s ground­brea­king work to advance effec­tive cell thera­pies that will bring trans­for­ma­tive bene­fits to both pati­ents and the planet.” Pionee­ring cell culture tech­no­logy from Aachen
HPL is deri­ved from dona­ted blood that is no longer suita­ble for trans­fu­sion and offers a sustainable and effec­tive alter­na­tive to animal-deri­­ved cell culture media. Conven­tio­nal methods often use fetal calf serum (TCS), which is obtai­ned from the blood of calf fetu­ses. With HPL, a more seam­less trans­fera­bi­lity of rese­arch results to humans is possi­ble. The tech­no­logy ensu­res relia­ble results in labo­ra­to­ries world­wide, paving the way for major advan­ces in rege­ne­ra­tive medi­cine. “PL BioScience’s Elarem plat­form uniquely meets the needs of rese­ar­chers by provi­ding human plate­­let-based cell culture media along the entire rese­arch chain,” says Rein­hard Vogt, Part­ner at AVANT BIO, who will join PL BioScience’s Advi­sory Board upon comple­tion. “We are exci­ted to support PL BioSci­ence as it enters a new phase of commer­cial expan­sion, both with working capi­tal and with our team’s deca­des of expe­ri­ence in cell culture media.”
Rege­ne­ra­tive treat­ments based on cell thera­pies The company’s exten­sive custo­mer base, which includes leading life science and biome­di­cal compa­nies, rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons and univer­sity hospi­tals, relies on PL BioScience’s HPL to deve­lop breakth­rough cellu­lar thera­pies. These cell thera­pies rely on highly safe and effec­tive growth media to improve the treat­ment opti­ons for auto­im­mune dise­a­ses such as type 1 diabe­tes melli­tus or the possi­bi­li­ties in wound heal­ing. Tina Drei­mann, foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of better ventures, summa­ri­zes the company’s mission: “We are exci­ted to support PL BioSci­ence in revo­lu­tio­ni­zing rege­ne­ra­tive medi­cine with their inno­va­tive HPL tech­no­logy. With a strong team, a proven market fit and a stra­te­gic patent port­fo­lio, PL BioSci­ence stands out as an excep­tio­nal invest­ment in the biome­di­cal space.” Massive growth in global demand for cell culture media Dr. Hatim Hemeda, co-foun­­der and CEO of PL BioScience
is obser­ving the growing demand for cell culture media that meet the high requi­re­ments of clini­cal studies: “The incre­asing number of clini­cal studies, espe­ci­ally with stem cells, is opening up promi­sing approa­ches. This increase is driving the estab­lish­ment of produc­tion faci­li­ties and the further deve­lo­p­ment of regu­la­tory frame­works, which is leading to a signi­fi­cant rise in global demand for cell culture media.” The global market for stem cell therapy, for exam­ple, is fore­cast to grow from USD 15 billion in 2024 to USD 63 billion in 2031, more than quadru­pling in terms of market volume. (Source: Global Stem Cell Therapy Market, Coher­ent Market Insights, 2024.) This trend is clearly visi­ble not only in Europe and the USA, but also in China, where demand for HPL is growing rapidly. “China curr­ently relies almost exclu­si­vely on impor­ted media for the culti­va­tion of stem cells and T cells. With the advance­ment of rege­ne­ra­tive medi­cine, the market poten­tial for HPL culture media in China is huge,” said Yu Chen, CFO at LePure Biotech.
Stra­te­gic part­ner­ship drives geogra­phic expan­sion Chris­tian Wilkes, co-foun­­der and CFO of PL BioScience
empha­si­zes the stra­te­gic importance of the inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ships: “By offe­ring high-quality, animal-free growth media, we have been able to build a solid repu­ta­tion both locally and globally. The invol­vement of renow­ned invest­ment compa­nies from Europe, the US and China acce­le­ra­tes our global growth stra­tegy and streng­thens our presence in these emer­ging geogra­phic markets.” Peter Kallien, Mana­ging Part­ner and foun­der of b.value AG, high­lights the poten­tial of the Aachen-based company: “PL BioSci­ence is perfectly posi­tio­ned as its HPL meets the high demands of clini­cal cell culture while being scalable to serve the growing rege­ne­ra­tive medi­cine market. We are proud to support a team that not only has the exper­tise, but also the passion to make a real difference.”