Prokarium Announces $30 Million Financing to Deliver Lead Program into Clinic and Build Novel Therapeutic Platform
9.2.2023 15:00:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
Prokarium, a biopharmaceutical company leading the oncology field of microbial immunotherapy, has raised $30 million in new funding. This follows Prokarium’s announcement of partnering with Ginkgo Bioworks to leverage its world-class Foundry and extensive Codebase to develop a bactofection platform technology.
“We are excited to advance our vision to create living cures,” said Kristen Albright, PharmD, Chief Executive Officer of Prokarium. “Proceeds of this financing will fund our lead oncology program entering clinical development this year and enable platform expansion for the delivery of novel therapeutic payloads, including RNA, via our proprietary bacteria. With Ginkgo’s partnership and their expertise in strain engineering and optimization we look forward to working towards unlocking a new generation of immuno-oncology therapeutics.”
Prokarium’s lead program has the potential to transform the treatment paradigm in bladder cancer, one of the costliest cancers to treat, in its efforts to become the new standard-of-care in a market that has seen little innovation in over 30 years and to offer advanced therapies an alternative to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Prokarium’s pipeline leverages evolutionary advantages of a proprietary strain of Salmonella and combines them with bespoke synthetic circuits to deliver diverse therapeutic cargo for difficult-to-treat cancers.
“We believe Prokarium is a truly differentiated company,” added Thomas Eldered, Executive Chairman, Flerie Invest. “The new funds and Prokarium’s partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks will accelerate the cutting-edge innovation essential to lead the advancements in the field of synthetic biology and immunotherapy for years to come.”
“Our partnership with Prokarium will utilize Ginkgo’s leading platform capabilities and services to pioneer technological developments that we believe will revolutionize the immuno-oncology field,” added Ena Cratsenburg, Chief Business Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks. “Ginkgo is excited to partner with Prokarium to work to build a versatile Salmonella-based bactofection platform capable of delivering targeted, localized RNA therapeutics.”
In addition to the financing, Prokarium has announced the addition of two scientific advisors, Professor Adrian Hayday, PhD and Sam Chang, MD, MBA. “We are thrilled to welcome Adrian and Sam as advisors as we transition into a clinical-stage company,” concluded Albright. “Adrian brings the deep immunology and immunotherapy expertise, and Sam possesses invaluable clinical experience being involved in numerous bladder cancer clinical trials.” Professor Hayday is the founding Chair of Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology at King’s College London and is currently Principal Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute. Sam currently serves as the Chief Surgical Officer at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center.
About Prokarium
Prokarium is a biopharmaceutical company leading the oncology field of microbial immunotherapy with the vision to create living cures. The Company’s pipeline is designed to unlock a new generation of immuno-oncology therapeutics by re-engineering evolution into a synthetic biology platform. Prokarium’s lead program is focused on transforming the treatment paradigm in bladder cancer by orchestrating immune-driven, long-lasting antitumor effects. Prokarium is based in London, UK. For further information, visit www.prokarium.com.
About Flerie Invest
Flerie Invest is an active long-term global biotech and pharma investor based in Stockholm and London managing a portfolio of over 30 companies in Europe, Israel and the US. The focus is on enabling pioneering organisations operating in the drug development and services space to succeed by providing them with resources and expertise. The portfolio includes a wide range of areas including immuno- oncology, metabolic diseases and biologics development and manufacturing organisations which have the potential to make a significant impact in health and wellbeing. Flerie Invest was founded in 2011 by Thomas Eldered, who also co-founded and built Recipharm to be one of the world’s top five pharmaceutical contract manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.flerie.com.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo’s biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and concentricbyginkgo.com, read our blog, or follow us on social media channels such as Twitter (@Ginkgo and @ConcentricByGBW), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks and @ConcentricByGinkgo), or LinkedIn.
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/20230209005006/en/
Contact information
PROKARIUM CONTACT:
Lisa Stone
lisa.stone@prokarium.com
GINKGO BIOWORKS CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.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
IQM and Real Asset Acquisition Corp. to Host Conference Call/Webcast to Discuss Proposed Transaction27.2.2026 14:00:00 EET | Press release
IQM Finland Oy, a global leader in full-stack superconducting quantum computers (“IQM”, “IQM Quantum Computers” or the “Company”), and Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: RAAQ), a special purpose acquisition company (“RAAQ”), announced that they will host a conference call to discuss their recently announced business combination, including certain transaction highlights. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260227472716/en/ IQM Radiance quantum computer As previously disclosed, on February 23, 2026, IQM and RAAQ announced they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement, which will result in IQM becoming a public company and listing American Depositary Shares on one of the two leading U.S. stock exchanges. The transaction provides funding with the aim to accelerate IQM’s technology and commercial development towards fault-tolerance quantum computing, further advancing its position as a leading p
HighRadius Launches $0 Implementation Fee, $0 Subscription Fee via Outcome Based Pricing for oCFO Software27.2.2026 13:00:00 EET | Press release
HighRadius launches Office of the CFO first Outcome Based Pricing with $0 Implementation fee and $0 Subscription until Go-Live. Customers only pay a fraction of realized gains based on P&L impact. Chapter 1: Outcome Based Pricing (OBP) Introduction of OBP: HighRadius, a provider of 190+ AI agents for Order-to-Cash, Accounts Payable, Record-to-Report, and Treasury introduces Outcome Based Pricing (OBP). Three Components of OBP: Customers pay a) $0 in Implementation fees, b) $0 in Subscription fees until Go Live, c) HighRadius earns a fraction of the actual savings realized by the client. Chapter 2: US GAAP & ASC 606 Constraints Not Designed for Innovation: The traditional ASC 606 model requires companies to standardize and recognize revenue based on contractual obligations. For a traditional SaaS subscription, the obligation is access to software over time. AI agents are designed to deliver quantifiable, real-time Business Outcomes that do not fit the traditional accounting framework. C
Kioxia Appoints Yoshihiko Kawamura as Chief Financial Officer27.2.2026 10:15:00 EET | Press release
Kioxia Holdings Corporation (TOKYO:285A), a world leader in memory solutions, today announced the appointment of Yoshihiko Kawamura as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective April 1, 2026. Mr. Kawamura brings extensive international experience to Kioxia, having held assignments at Mitsubishi Corporation’s U.S. headquarters, served as General Manager of its Chicago office, and completed a tenure at the World Bank. At Hitachi, Ltd., he held senior leadership positions, including Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Chief Risk Management Officer (CRMO), where he was instrumental in leading the company’s management reforms. Since joining Kioxia as Executive Vice President in June 2025, Mr. Kawamura has worked closely with the executive team to advance the business through strategic capital and financial planning. Following its initial public offering on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 2024, Kioxia is entering a new phase of growth char
DNP Invests in Rapidus to Support the Establishment of Mass Production for Next-Generation Semiconductors27.2.2026 09:18:00 EET | Press release
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP, TOKYO:7912) today announced that it has participated in Rapidus Corporation’s funding round as one of the round investors. This strategic funding initiative supports Rapidus’ plan to steadily progress from its current R&D phase to mass production of 2nm (10⁻⁹ meters) logic semiconductors by 2027. Through this initiative, DNP will advance the development and mass production of EUV lithography photomasks and support Rapidus as it establishes a mass production system for 2nm & next-generation semiconductors. Background In recent years, the rise in energy consumption, in line with increased data generation, has become a challenge, driving demand for next-generation semiconductors capable of improving device performance and reducing power consumption. Next-generation semiconductors manufactured using EUV lithography enable the formation of finer patterns on silicon wafers compared to currently available technologies. This in turn is boosting expectations
EdgeConneX Looks to Enter Swedish Market as Part of European Data Center Expansion Strategy27.2.2026 09:05:00 EET | Press release
EdgeConneX®, an EQT portfolio company with an extensive Pan-European data center footprint, looks to expand its presence with a new site located in Skellefteå, Sweden. The data center site will be acquired from Lyten, a global company that specializes in lithium-sulfur batteries and energy storage. The site would support EdgeConneX broader strategy to expand digital infrastructure capacity across the Nordics. Subject to the completion of applicable administrative and regulatory processes, EdgeConneX will look to develop a data center campus with potential capacity of up to one gigawatt in support of future AI and cloud computing workloads. Upon completion, the data center campus would be one of the largest facilities in Europe that would be primarily powered by renewable energy. “Sweden represents an attractive long‑term market for digital infrastructure investment. The country’s access to renewable energy, stable power grid, technical workforce and strong sustainability framework alig
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