Nagi Bioscience Secures CHF 1.8M Seed Funding to Revolutionize Drug Testing with Organism-on-Chip Technology

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Nagi Bioscience SA, a life sciences technology company headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, which develops technologies for in vitro testing of drugs and chemicals, completed a CHF 1.8 million seed financing round on December 23, 2019, local time. Investors in this round included investiere, Zürcher Kantonalbank, the NEST pension fund, as well as private investors from Switzerland and the United States. Nagi Bioscience intends to use these funds to complete the development of its first product and prepare for its market launch. Additionally, the company announced the appointment of Dr. Chris Radloff to its Board of Directors. As a board member and angel investor for multiple startups, he brings over 20 years of experience in the life sciences sector and expertise in technology. Dr. Radloff stated that he is honored to participate in Nagi Bioscience’s next phase of research and development, expressing his hope to translate innovative ideas at the intersection of life sciences and microfluidics into a viable business.

Nagi Bioscience is a spin-off company of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), founded in 2019 by Dr. Matteo Cornaglia, who serves as Vice President and CEO, and Dr. Laurent Mouchiroud, Chief Problem Officer. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the company envisions revolutionizing drug testing through its innovative Organism-on-Chip technology. Notably, Nagi Bioscience’s Organism-on-Chip technology combines microfluidics with microscopic worms—specifically Caenorhabditis elegans, a validated biological model—to provide a new, sustainable alternative to traditional animal testing for the pharmaceutical, chemical, and cosmetics industries, as well as for biomedical research. Furthermore, this solution adheres to the “3Rs” principles for laboratory animals and significantly reduces costs in pharmaceutical and chemical research.

“Today, our microfluidic devices enable complex drug efficacy and safety testing that would traditionally require months of animal studies to be completed in just a few days, at a fraction of the cost and with full automation,” said Dr. Matteo Cornaglia, Founder and CEO of Nagi Bioscience. “Nagi Bioscience is a strong team of dedicated professionals united by a shared vision: to create novel solutions for faster, cost-effective, and sustainable drug and chemical testing in the future. The entire team is thrilled and honored by this financing round.”

(Compiled by Ning Chen)