NanoSyrinx, a synthetic biology company developing nanosyringes, announced that it closed a £10 million ($13 million) financing round.

BGF, Octopus Ventures and M Ventures led the financing. Existing investors IQ Capital and Meltwind also participated. According to a news release, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly took part in the funding round as well. NanoSyrinx also named Edwin Moses, a longtime life sciences entrepreneur and executive, as chair of its board.

“Edwin has significant experience as a successful CEO and chair, with extensive involvement in biotech fundraising, strategic commercial partnerships and successful exits,” said Dr. Joe Healey, CEO, NanoSyrinx. “We are thrilled to have him joining as chair of our board as we drive forward with our ambitious plans. He joins us at a pivotal stage alongside this financing, which places us in a well-capitalized position to further develop our intracellular drug delivery technology to realize its full potential in developing medicines.

The UK-based company plans to use the funds to support the advancement of its technology platform that could accelerate the development of biologic therapeutics against a pipeline of previously “undruggable” intracellular targets.

NanoSyrinx’s platform utilizes naturally occurring “nanosyringes” engineered to selectively deliver peptide and protein payloads. These include functional gene editors and a range of other enzymes, delivered directly to the cytosol of targeted cells.

“NanoSyrinx’s technology promises to make a tremendous positive difference to the very challenging problem of intracellular delivery of therapeutics,” Moses added. “I am delighted to join the board and help build on the momentum of this latest fundraise, to support the company and its leadership team in the further development of this unique platform which has the potential to create enormous value and make a real difference to patients’ lives.”