Óskare Capital’s First Portfolio Company, Octarine Bio, Raises $3 Million USD
ÓSKARE CAPITAL’s first portfolio company, Octarine Bio, continues to lead the sector in molecule synthesis, having successfully closed their Seed round in March of this year with Vækstfonden (Danish sovereign wealth fund) investing alongside ÓSKARE CAPITAL.
ÓSKARE CAPITAL sees Octarine Bio as having a very high potential to significantly disrupt the market by developing new patentable cannabinoid and psychedelic molecules in pharma and consumer spaces.
As an overview, Octarine Bio is a Synthetic biotechnology company with proprietary glycosylation and other functionalization technologies (platform), developing novel cannabinoids which fills a need in the market for new and patentable molecules, key to pharmaceutical cannabis in the future.
In a quote provided to PRWeb, Lene Gerlach, Investment Manager at Vækstfonden commented:
“Octarine is a perfect example of how research and innovation from both Copenhagen University and the Danish Technical University of Denmark can become a strong company with a global competitive edge. The Octarine team has been excellent in executing on their development goals and Vækstfonden is very pleased to continue our close partnership…”.
Echoing the sentiment, Alexandre Ouimet-Storrs, President and Co-Founder of ÓSKARE CAPITAL noted:
“We scouted and first invested in Octarine two years ago and they have made phenomenal progress since then in developing a pipeline of natural and improved cannabinoid and psychedelic drug candidates. These molecules will be key building blocks for the next wave of pharmaceutical grade molecules that target poorly treated psychological and neurological conditions”.
Due to significant investor demand, the Seed round closed with an uptick in valuation and brings the total quantum of capital raised by the team to $3 million USD. Investors have cited that fact that the Octarine team that has done this before (with synthetic vanillin) as being a factor in their decision to invest.
Octarine CEO, Dr Nethaji Gallage, states:
“Interest in the therapeutic use of cannabinoids and psychedelics has exploded recently, and we’re thrilled to see investors get behind our unique biosynthetic approach to bringing these therapies to market. We’re particularly proud to see significant follow-on investment from our existing investors; for us this is a key validation of the team, technology, and business model”
Commenting on the use of funds from the latest round, Dr Nethaji Gallage notes:
“Octarine has laid out an ambitious R&D plan for this year and we’ve been able to achieve our first set of R&D milestones for Q1. This funding round will allow us to expand our R&D facility and capabilities in Copenhagen and expand the R&D and executive management teams”.
To hear more about Octarine Bio, please contact the ÓSKARE CAPITAL investment team or visit http://www.octarinebio.com.