The European Investment Bank (EIB) and LUMICKS have signed a €20 million venture debt agreement to accelerate the launch of its next generation, high throughput cell avidity platform. The financing is supported by the European Commission under the InvestEU initiative.
LUMICKS’ Cell Avidity technology is transforming the discovery process in cancer immunotherapy by addressing a critical challenge: the lack of tools to directly measure the binding interaction of immune cells, such as CAR-T cells, with cancer cells. This limitation creates uncertainties in the preclinical funnel and slows therapy development. By providing high-throughput measurement of such interactions, LUMICKS’ empowers researchers to optimize therapies faster and with greater accuracy, with the goal of improving success rates in clinical trials.
“The Netherlands is home to a vibrant Life Sciences industry and the EIB has been proudly supporting this sector to ensure it continues to lead in medical innovation and transformative healthcare solutions.” stated EIB vice president Robert de Groot. “The new financing to LUMICKS is a testament of this. With the backing of InvestEU, the EIB can provide LUMICKS with stable long-term funding matching the highly innovative profile of the Company and tailored to its current needs for continued growth, market expansion, and development of its technologies.”
“This investment from the EIB enables us to accelerate our R&D timeline, ensuring we continue innovating to deliver a long-lasting impact in the immunotherapy space” stated LUMICKS CEO Hugo de Wit. “By providing deeper insights into cellular interactions, our instruments empower researchers to make faster, better-informed decisions, with the goal of improving success rates in clinical trials and accelerating the development of effective therapies.”
LUMICKS, founded in 2014, employs 170 people globally and has a proven track record of developing and commercializing cutting-edge life science tools. Widely adopted by top universities and research institutions worldwide, LUMICKS’ technologies have contributed to numerous publications in top journals across fields such as oncology and immunotherapy.
About European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. Over the last ten years, the EIB has made available more than €27 billion in financing for Dutch projects in various sectors, including research & development, transport, drinking water, healthcare and SMEs.
About LUMICKS
LUMICKS is a pioneering life science tools company dedicated to accelerating drug discovery in cancer research and advancing the understanding of fundamental biological mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels. Our innovative technologies empower researchers to reveal crucial insights into the biological complexity of health and disease, driving the development of next-generation therapies and accelerating immunotherapy breakthroughs.
About Gilde Healthcare
Gilde Healthcare is a transatlantic specialist investment firm managing over €2.6 billion across two fund strategies: Venture&Growth and Private Equity. The Venture&Growth fund of Gilde Healthcare invests in fast growing companies active in digital health, medtech and therapeutics, based in Europe and North America. The Private Equity fund of Gilde Healthcare participates in profitable lower mid-market healthcare companies based in North-Western Europe. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.gildehealthcare.com.
