Estonian biotech company Vectiopep raises €450K

Tartu-based biotechnology company Vectiopep, which developed technology to help the immune system fight cancer, has raised €450K in a pre-seed round. The lead investors were a founding member of EstBAN and a venture partner of Finnish VC Superhero Ivo Remmelg, health tech investor Dag Nurm, and an investment company of the University of Tartu UniTartu Ventures.

Founded in 2022 by Kaido Kurrikoff and Piret Arukuusk, Vectiopep has developed a technology that allows the delivery of a molecular message (mRNA) to the immune system that contains the construction plan of a therapeutic protein. This delivered mRNA teaches the patient's immune system to identify and eliminate cancer cells, and it helps to produce therapeutics directly on site, in the patient's tissues and cells, without the need to manufacture them in industrial factories. mRNA delivers the message to the antigen-presenting cells, which look for foreign signals in the patient's body and then teach these signals to another type of immune cell—the killer T-cell, which ultimately fights any abnormal tissue.

Ivo Remmelg, who has already invested in several startups, focuses on investing in cleantech, biotech, and development software for various fields. 

UniTartu Ventures usually invests with early-stage deep tech VC in early-stage startups and spin-offs related to Tartu. The focus is on life sciences, processing and computing, food tech, agritech, energy, cleantech, and infrastructure. The CEO is Mart Maasik.