Tranure bioServices Secures €2.5 Million Funding to Enhance In Vivo Preclinical Pharmacology Platform

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media reports that Tranure bioServices, a French one-stop preclinical services company, announced on June 3 the completion of a new €2.5 million financing round led by Financière Arbevel. The entire funding came from the Arbevel Life Sciences cross I fund. Agile Capital Markets served as the financial advisor for this transaction.

Upon completion of the transaction, Marc Le Bozec, Managing Director of the Arbevel Life Sciences Crossover I Fund, will join the Supervisory Board of Tranure bioServices.

Tranure bioServices plans to use the funds raised to maintain healthy operations, accelerate the growth of its international sales business in Europe and the United States, expand its new product lines, and provide a more comprehensive in vivo preclinical pharmacology service platform for international pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

It is reported that Tranure bioServices previously received a grant of CHF 30,000 (€26,900) in May 2012, completed a seed funding round of CHF 100,000 (€89,500) in May 2013, and secured €700,000 in venture capital financing in August 2014.

Tranure bioServices is a contract research organization (CRO) headquartered in Archamps, France, co-led by CEO and Co-founder Patrick Nef and Chairman Stephane Legastelois. It is dedicated to providing preclinical in vivo pharmacology services to international pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as academic institutions.

Contract Research Organizations (CROs) are institutions that provide research services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. CROs primarily offer highly specialized outsourcing services, including the design and consultation of clinical trial protocols and case report forms, clinical trial monitoring, data management, statistical analysis, and the preparation of statistical analysis reports. Their target market mainly consists of pharmaceutical companies engaged in medical statistics and clinical trials for drugs. By streamlining drug development and market entry processes, CROs help reduce the costs associated with developing new drugs.

Tranure bioServices has developed unique R&D platforms, including humanized immune system (HIS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) mouse models. By accessing these platforms, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, and academic laboratories can obtain targeted fee-for-service support to develop new drugs and therapies for immune-related diseases.

Tranure bioServices’ comprehensive R&D platform provides predictive drug analysis and intelligent candidate drug screening technologies for oncology, inflammatory diseases (such as IBD, SLE, MS, and RA), autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases (including HIV), liver diseases, and vaccines.

Patrick Nef stated, “We warmly welcome Arbevel as a new shareholder to support our international CRO business. Over the past three years, this segment has seen significant profit growth. In addition to the humanized immune system mouse models currently under development for tumor immunology, inflammation, and infectious diseases, we will also provide drug analysis services related to human liver tissues and human monoclonal antibodies.”

Financière Arbevel, a venture capital investment management firm, was founded in 1997 and acquired by its current shareholder, AUM, in early 2009. To date, the assets under management at AUM have grown from €25 million to €1.6 billion.

Financière Arbevel primarily engages in small- and mid-cap investments. The company is research-driven, emphasizing financial and strategic analysis to conduct comprehensive assessments of its portfolio companies. It mainly invests in structural growth sectors that transcend macroeconomic cycles to create value, such as digitalization, fintech, and information technology. In 2018, Financière Arbevel launched its first European private equity fund as a specialized investment vehicle, focusing on unlisted life sciences companies.

Financière Arbevel currently has 34 employees, including 13 professionals in fund management and investment research.

(Compiled by Tang Lulu)