Paris-based biotech startup Brink Therapeutics, which develops next-generation gene editing enzymes to power advanced cell and gene therapies, has secured €3.5 million in a seed funding round led by Kurma Partners.
- Brink Therapeutics, founded in 2024 by Harry Kemble and Jonathan Naccache, develops recombinases, enzymes that target specific DNA sequences without creating double-strand breaks.
- The company uses directed evolution and AI-driven design to make these recombinases programmable, aiming to improve the precision and scalability of genetic modifications.
- Their work focuses on applications in CAR-T cell therapies to enable in vivo genome editing for a broader range of diseases.
“The combination of our in vitro Directed Evolution, metagenomic discovery and genAI platforms allows us to rapidly screen and capture activity data for billions of synthetic and natural recombinase sequences against diverse DNA target sequences, while continually learning from the results,” co-founder of Brink Therapeutics, Harry Kemble, commented.
Details of the deal
- The seed funding was led by Kurma Partners, a Paris-based venture capital firm that has raised €140 million for Biofund IV. The firm intends to support 16 to 20 startups focused on innovative therapeutics.
- The round also saw participation from Kima Ventures, BREEGA, Plug and Play Tech Center, and business angels.
- Brink Therapeutics will use the seed funding to scale its team, validate five recombinases by 2026, and build a data library to support AI-driven enzyme design, advancing its gene editing platform for CAR-T therapies.
