Onyx Biotech Secures Pre-Seed Funding to Accelerate AI-Driven Drug Development

Onyx Biotech has secured pre-seed funding from Life Science Valley Growth Fund, Freiraum Ventures, and a group of business angels to advance its approach to modern drug development. The company focuses on creating advanced algorithms and workflows designed to replace time-intensive experimental processes with intelligent simulations.

One key application is antibody purification, where these digital methods aim to streamline complex procedures. By addressing inefficiencies in the development of biologics, Onyx Biotech targets one of the most significant bottlenecks in a field that is becoming increasingly important in modern medicine.

Founded in September 2024 by brothers Florian and Gregor Essert, the startup is driven by the goal of making the development of essential medicines faster, more efficient, and more sustainable. From the outset, the founders emphasized the importance of collaborating with established industry partners to validate their technology in practical settings.

According to Gregor Essert, co-founder and CEO, early partnerships were critical to demonstrating the real-world applicability of Onyx Biotech’ solution.

Despite being a young company, Onyx Biotech has already formed partnerships with recognized players in the biopharmaceutical sector

These include a top-five German biopharmaceutical company and a leading contract development organization. Through these collaborations, Onyx Biotech has been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of its technology. Its digital twin models, which simulate real-world processes with high accuracy, can eliminate up to 96 percent of the laboratory experiments typically required in development workflows. As a result, processes that traditionally take months can now be completed in just a few days.

Florian Essert, co-founder and CFO, highlights the broader implications of this approach. He notes that as sustainability becomes a growing priority and concerns rise about the competitiveness of Germany and Europe, solutions like those developed by Onyx Biotech can play a role in strengthening the region’s position in pharmaceutical innovation. By reducing resource consumption and accelerating timelines, the company’s technology supports both economic and environmental objectives.

The founders of Onyx Biotech also emphasize the importance of their location in Munich as a key factor in their early progress. They point to the strong local startup ecosystem, including institutions such as the Technical University of Munich (TUM), UnternehmerTUM, and BayStartUP, as instrumental in supporting their development. According to Florian Essert, this environment has provided valuable resources, networks, and guidance, helping the company reach its current stage.

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(Featured image by Igor Omilaev via Unsplash)

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