Ahammune Biosciences, an Indian clinical-stage therapeutics company working on new ways to cure skin diseases, on Wednesday, said it has raised $5 million in a Series A round of funding led by early-stage deep tech-focused investor pi Ventures.
Capital2B, Colossa Ventures, Bipin Agarwal, Unicornus Maximus LLP, and existing investors Ideaspring Capital, Kotak Alternate Assets, Legacy Assets LLP, and IAN also joined the round.
The company said it will use the proceeds to conduct Phase II human clinical trials for its promising drug candidate for vitiligo, a skin depigmenting disorder that currently has no cure. Vitiligo, a chronic condition with unpredictable and recurring appearance of white patches, is prevalent in about 1-2% of the global population.
“India is not known for drug discovery. We are just used to taking things that are developed in other parts of the world, copying them, and taking them forward here in the form of generics. That is something that is changing now, and we are just a small part to change that. We want to change the perception of India as not merely a generics capital, but a discovery capital,” Parul Ganju, co-founder and CEO of Ahammune told DealStreetAsia in an interaction.
In addition to vitiligo, Ahammune claims to be developing a strong pipeline of patented molecules to treat other dermatological and autoimmune diseases.
“Raising funding for a biotech company is always challenging, and this time has been no exception. While it has been difficult, a positive outcome of this round is that we were oversubscribed. This indicates that it is a good time for biotech funding,” Ganju said.
The firm will use the funding corpus to support its commercialisation efforts over the next two years following the phase two clinical trials. “After that, we can pursue a larger funding round to commercialise the drug independently, which will necessitate another set of clinical trials. Alternatively, we could partner with a pharmaceutical company to co-develop the drug, which would help expand its reach. Once commercialised, the drug can reach a wider audience both domestically and globally,” she added.
pi Ventures, which led the round through its $85 million fund, has made at least 13 investments from the fund, with another 10-15 more to go, managing director Roopan Aulakh told DealStreetAsia.
pi Ventures, which has invested in many deep tech startups such as Agnikul, Wysa and Ai Palette, is seeing positive changes in the still nascent deep tech industry in India.
“We are witnessing an increase in not just limited partners (LPs) but also growth-stage investors, along with numerous corporate VCs interested in the deep tech narrative emerging from India. We have certain advantages in building businesses here; talent is not an issue, and there are cost advantages as well,” Aulakh said.
