EnginZyme Secures €6.4 Million Series A Financing Round Led by Sofinnova Partners
22.4.2020 09:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
EnginZyme, the cell-free synthetic biology company, today announced a Series A investment of €6.4 million led by Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm based in Paris, London and Milan, bringing the company’s total funding to over €10 million since 2014.
The funds will be used to accelerate the development of EnginZyme’s technology platform and take its first internal production process to pilot. The company also announced that Michael Krel, Partner of the Sofinnova Industrial Biotech Fund, will join EnginZyme’s Board of Directors.
“Sofinnova Partners brings a deep industrial experience, which makes them the perfect partner for us,” said EnginZyme CEO Dr. Karim Engelmark Cassimjee. “This is a complex field, so it is important to have investors that can provide not only the financial support but also strategic guidance. With over a decade of experience investing in industrial biotechnology, there are few investors as well placed as Sofinnova Partners to bring this domain expertise to the table.”
“There's never been a more important time to provide solid, long-term support to pioneering companies in industrial biotechnology,” said Michael Krel, Partner of the Sofinnova Industrial Biotech Fund. “We strongly believe in EnginZyme’s outstanding team and the potential of its technology to join the power of biology with the efficiency of chemical engineering to bring us towards a more sustainable future.”
EnginZyme seeks to solve one of the fundamental problems of our time: How to produce sustainable alternatives to plastics, nylons, rubbers, and the tons of other synthetics that are used on a daily basis, without compromising on cost-effectiveness. To achieve this, EnginZyme’s technology platform combines the breadth and power of nature (enzymatic cascades) with the efficiency of the chemical industry (packed bed reactors) in a best-of-both-worlds technical solution.
“It has long been recognized that if we could effectively access nature’s full palette of molecules, we could solve many of the world’s most pressing problems,” said Dr. Engelmark Cassimjee. “There’s just so much more you can do with biological systems than with traditional catalysts and petroleum-based building blocks. But the key word here is ‘effectively’ — it needs to be as cheap and easy to scale as the chemical solutions we’ve used for more than a century now. We’re the first company to truly address that and by doing so we are building foundational technology for an entire future industry.”
About EnginZyme
EnginZyme’s cell-free synthetic biology platform marries the efficiency of the chemical industry with the power and diversity of biology. The company was founded in Stockholm, Sweden. Since its start in 2014 it has used its technology to provide R&D services to leading companies in multiple industries, such as pharma, food, chemicals and flavors & fragrances. Its long-term aim is to make its cell-free synbio platform the foundation upon which the future chemical industry rests.
For more information, please visit: www.enginzyme.com
About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm specialized in Life Sciences. Based in Paris, France, with offices in London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of 40 professionals from all over Europe, the U.S. and Asia. The firm focuses on paradigm-shifting technologies alongside visionary entrepreneurs. Sofinnova Partners invests across the Life Sciences value chain as a lead or cornerstone investor, from very early-stage opportunities to late-stage/public companies. It has backed nearly 500 companies over more than 48 years, creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2 billion under management.
For more information, please visit: www.sofinnovapartners.com
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005045/en/
Contact information
Beatrix Ellis
press@enginzyme.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
iQmetrix Unveils Built-In Intelligence for Every Role in Telecom Commerce at Its 2026 Telecom Industry Address5.11.2026 23:39:00 EET | Press release
iQmetrix, the global provider of Intelligent Commerce Operating Systems for telecom, last week shared highlights from its 2026 Telecom Industry Address and Product Announcements, held virtually on Oct. 28 in two sessions, one for North American audiences and one for European audiences. The address was built around one theme: intelligence. Telecom commerce is moving from systems that record the business to systems that act on it, and the announcements put that intelligence in the hands of every role, from the sales associate at the counter, to the finance manager in the back office, to the corporate view leading the channel experience. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261105003162/en/ "Right now telecom providers are competing in a race to the bottom on price that no one wins. The way out is intelligence. Not AI bolted onto a fragmented tech stack, but intelligence built into how commerce runs. Information plus
Compass Pathways Announces New Employee Inducement Grants Under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4)5.11.2026 23:30:00 EET | Press release
Compass Pathways plc (Nasdaq: CMPS), a biotechnology company dedicated to unlocking urgently needed new treatment options in mental health care, announced today that Compass granted equity awards under the Compass Pathways plc 2026 Inducement Plan to nine newly hired non-executive employees. The equity awards were granted on November 2, 2026, and consisted of options to purchase an aggregate of 59,275 shares and restricted share units or, in the case of employees in the United Kingdom nominal cost options, covering an aggregate of 28,200 shares. These options have an exercise price per share equal to $8.41, the closing price of the Company’s American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on the grant date, and will vest over a four-year period with 25% vesting on the first anniversary of the date of the grant and the remaining 75% vesting in equal monthly installments over the three-year period thereafter, subject to each employee’s continued employment. The restricted s
Graco QUANTM i230 Brings Electrification to High-Flow Fluid-Transfer Applications5.11.2026 23:16:00 EET | Press release
Graco Inc. is helping manufacturers electrify high-flow fluid-transfer applications with the global launch of the 3-inch QUANTM® i230, bringing efficient electric drive technology to demanding processes that have traditionally relied on pneumatic pumps. Paint, coatings and ceramics manufacturers depend on diaphragm pumps for their flexibility, reliability and ability to handle challenging materials. But pneumatic pumps also depend on compressed air — an energy-intensive plant resource whose available capacity can fluctuate as demand changes across a facility. The QUANTM i230 gives manufacturers another option for qualified high-flow applications. By combining familiar diaphragm pump capabilities with electric operation, the pump helps manufacturers move more material, reduce transfer bottlenecks and lower energy consumption by up to 80% compared to pneumatic pumps, while maintaining operating flexibility. “High-flow processes in industries like paint, coatings and ceramics have continu
ThetaRay Named World’s Best Software Provider for AML and Sanctions Screening in the 2026 Euromoney Transaction Banking Awards5.11.2026 20:30:00 EET | Press release
ThetaRay, a global leader in AI-native financial crime compliance infrastructure, has been named The World’s Best Software Provider for AML and Sanctions Screening at the 2026 Euromoney Transaction Banking Awards. Evaluated by Euromoney’s editorial and research team, ThetaRay was recognized for technology excellence, verifiable performance, and advancing the modern transaction banking value chain. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261105714764/en/ The recognition reinforces ThetaRay’s standing as foundational compliance infrastructure for global institutions, closely following Chartis Research ranking ThetaRay #8 globally in the Financial Crime and Compliance50 (FCC50) 2026 report and naming the company a Category Winner for Explainable AI. “Our customers operate on the front lines against illicit networks exploiting the speed and scale of modern payment rails, which means defensive technology must meet and outp
Arthur D. Little: H1 2026 Private Capital Fundraising Strengthens While Market Sentiment Highlights Investor Shift to Europe over US and Asia5.11.2026 19:58:00 EET | Press release
Invest Europe, the association representing Europe’s private equity, venture capital and infrastructure sectors, as well as their investors, today released ‘Investing in Europe: Private Equity Activity H1 2026’ and ‘The Insight: State of the European Private Equity Industry 2026’, an annual market sentiment report published jointly with global management consultancy Arthur D. Little (ADL). Together, these show increased fundraising for European private equity and venture capital versus the same period last year, stronger investor allocation expectations for Europe, and declining appetite for the US and Asia. The sentiment report also demonstrates how AI is reshaping the industry and portfolio companies, while defence-related themes are topping GPs’ target investments. GPs (General Partners/fund managers of PE firms) and LPs (Limited Partners of PE firms/fund investors) are reacting and adapting to another year of geopolitical unpredictability and market volatility marked by Middle East
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom