Investment Notes: Gelomics

Jelix is proud to back Gelomics, the company that fast-tracks biomedical R&D by enabling scientists to grow 3D cell cultures, which act as highly predictive and accurate models of human biology and ethical alternatives to animal testing. 

In July 2024, Jelix Fund 1 led Gelomic’s oversubscribed seed round with participation from QIC and Angelloop.

Cell culture is a process where cells are grown under controlled conditions outside of their natural environment. When cells are removed from living creatures, they must be kept in an appropriate artificial environment. This provides crucial support for in vitro cellular research used in academia and biopharma drug development.

However, traditional 2D cell cultures fall short in predicting human physiology and pathology accurately, which leads to misleading and non-translatable results that cost drug developers over US$360bn annually.

At the same time, while increasing regulation to eliminate animal testing in drug development accelerates the need for 3D cell cultures, significant limitations with current products have so far prevented widespread market adoption.

Gelomics’ innovative approach provides greater control, reproducibility, speed and ease-of-use compared with market-leading 3D cell cultures. 

The Gelomics team are biomaterials experts with direct experience with the problem. Christoph is a great founder with a clear vision and an impressive ability to communicate and simplify this highly technical area.

This pre-seed round will help to establish sales distribution (both direct and indirect) to prove product-market fit, scale production capacity and for product development.

Why we’re excited to back Gelomics

Addressing a massive market with growth underpinned by regulatory tailwinds

Regulators worldwide are progressively eliminating animal testing in biopharma drug development, accelerating the need for alternative methodologies like 3D cell cultures that can model human physiology and pathophysiology in a laboratory setting.

The founding team are biomaterials experts

Dr Christoph Meinert (CEO), Dr Peter Levett (COO),  Prof Dietmar Hutmacher (Advisor / Co-founder) and Prof. Travis Klein (Advisor / Co-founder) are global leaders in biomaterials, having spent their entire careers specialising in this field. 

Strong competitive moat

Competitors would likely require specialised expertise and years of research and development to copy Gelomics’ technology - which will be further strengthened through patent protection. 

Solving the shortcomings of 3D cell cultures

Widespread adoption of 3D cell culture techniques into research laboratories and biopharma drug development is hindered by significant limitations of existing products. Gelomics’ innovative technology overcomes these issues by providing a cost-effective, fast and easy-to-use solution that leads to more accurate and translatable results.

Promising customer traction

Since product launch in 2021, Gelomics has generated over $200k in sales in the academic market, and is in early trials with leading biopharma companies. 

Bold vision to build an integrated platform for the entire 3D cell culture workflow

Gelomics’ ambition is to be a world-leading provider of fully integrated and translational 3D cell, organoid, and tissue culture technologies via its superior workflow optimisation for customers.