• Series A financing led by ARCH Venture Partners and co-led by Eir Ventures
• ARCH Venture Partner Patrick Weiss appointed Board Chairman

Moleculent AB, a company pioneering technology to study the communication between cells in human tissue, today announced the closing of its oversubscribed $26 million Series A financing. The round was led by ARCH Venture Partners (ARCH) and co-led by Eir Ventures with participation from the company’s existing investors. ARCH’s Patrick Weiss has been appointed Chairman. Sean Kendall from ARCH, together with Magnus Persson from Eir Ventures, have also joined the company’s Board of Directors.

Moleculent’s functional biology platform detects cell-cell interactions and profiles their communication directly within their tissue environment. This novel approach allows scientists to see how healthy cells function and how diseased cells differ at a complex, networked level. A complete picture of the cell-cell communication in a tumor, for example, offers a practical understanding of the signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms involved in drug response. Studying cell-cell interactions between many different receptors and ligands, in a tissue context, represents a paradigm shift in understanding biological systems by enabling scientists to see a more comprehensive picture and to decode the cell-cell conversations and disease pathways.

“Analysis of DNA, as well as RNA and protein expression inform us about the building blocks of a cell but do not directly measure how cells are working together. Understanding cell-cell communication networks in tissues has the potential to bring us into a new era of understanding functional biology and human disorders,” said Olle Ericsson, PhD, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Moleculent. “The Moleculent platform has been designed to allow scientists to uncover radical new insights into the cellular level of human biology and pathology. We are very happy to partner with ARCH Venture Partners and Eir Ventures to bring this enabling platform to the scientific community.”

Moleculent is led by a team of industry veterans with expertise in developing and globally commercializing life science tools at leading companies including Halo Genomics (acquired by Agilent), Vanadis Diagnostics (acquired by Perkin Elmer), and Spatial Transcriptomics (acquired by 10x Genomics).

“Spatial mapping technologies transformed our understanding of cellular neighborhoods, and the next frontier is to measure the critical communications between networks of individual cells. Moleculent will enable scientists to decipher this communication to better understand functional human biology,” said Weiss. “I am honored to chair the Moleculent Board and look forward to working with this exceptional team of experienced entrepreneurs and technology developers to change how we understand and diagnose disease in the coming decade.”

About Moleculent

Moleculent is on a mission to develop advanced technology-enabled products that leverage new insights into the molecular foundation of human biology. The company is developing the first functional profiling platform that allows scientists to map cell-cell communication directly in clinical tissue, providing insights to accelerate the functional understanding of biology. By understanding how cells communicate, coordinate their actions, and adapt to their surroundings in human tissues, scientists will gain a better picture of the cellular complexity in health and disease. Moleculent is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and can be found online at www.moleculent.com.

About ARCH Venture Partners

ARCH Venture Partners creates and invests in groundbreaking life science and technology companies. The firm is a recognized leader in commercializing technologies developed at academic institutions, corporate research groups and national laboratories. ARCH invests primarily in companies it co-founds with leading scientists and entrepreneurs, bringing innovations in life sciences and physical sciences to market.

For more information, visit www.archventure.com.

About Eir Ventures

Eir Ventures is a life sciences venture capital fund investing in private companies with stellar entrepreneurs developing transformative therapeutic approaches. Optimal and responsible value creation for companies and investors is obtained by working closely with our portfolio companies. We contribute our company building and management expertise, strategic thinking and our extensive networks to drive healthcare innovation to the benefit of patients, healthcare systems, investors and society.

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