VIB and V-Bio Ventures have both participated in a series A round for Muna Therapeutics, the result of a merger of two recent spinouts.

Muna Therapeutics, a Denmark-based developer of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, closed a $73m series A round today backed by VIB and its venture capital affiliate V-Bio Ventures.
Pharmaceutical firm Novo, Sofinnova Partners, Droia Ventures and LSP Dementia co-led the round, with additional participation from Sanofi Ventures, the strategic investment arm of pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, Polaris Partners and Polaris Innovation Fund.
Muna Therapeutics is focused on neurodegenerative diseases for which no cure is currently available and for which palliative care is scarce.
It has created a small molecule drug discovery engine that uses artificial intelligence-powered computational chemistry, cell-based screening and high-resolution target structural approaches.
The capital has been allocated to progressing candidates through to investigational new drug applications. Muna’s pipeline consists of assets aimed at repairing neuronal dysfunction, treating neuroinflammation and restoring neuroprotection and resilience to disease.
Muna is the result of a merger between two spinouts. The first, also called Muna, was spun out of Aarhus University last year, with the support of Novo Seeds and later attracted a minority investment from contract research and discovery company Axxam.
The second, K5 Therapeutics, was also founded in 2020 based on research at VIB and KU Leuven, with investments from VIB and Droia Ventures.
The combined company will continue to operate its bases in Copenhagen and Leuven, and will be led by chief executive Rita Balice-Gordon and chief operating officer Anders Hinsby, both entrepreneurs-in-residence at Novo Seeds.
Paul Van Dun, general manager of KU Leuven’s tech transfer office, and Christina Takke, co-founder and managing partner of V-Bio Ventures, are upcoming guests on our Talking Tech Transfer podcast, which will return with new episodes on July 30.
Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or wherever you download your podcasts from.

Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the former editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and was the producer and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast until December 2024.