Tissum rases €39m

Programmable polymer developer Tissium announced that it raised nearly $43 million in a Series B funding round to support expansion.

The company’s funding round reached approximately $42.8 million (€38.8 million) and included new investors BNP Paribas Developpement, the European Investment Fund, M&L Investments and ValQuest Partners, along with returning investors Bpifrance, CM-CIC Innovation, CapDecisif Management, Omnes Capital and Soffinnova Partners.

Paris-based Tissium said the funds raised will be put toward the global expansion of its platform of fully synthetic, biomorphic programmable polymers. The polymers are designed for use in numerous therapeutic fields, such as nerve repair, cardiovascular and gastroenterology.

Tissium’s platform was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, creating polymers designed to go inside the body as sealants, adhesives, barriers, plugs or as a vehicle for drug delivery. The company said the funding will not only support the platform’s growth, but it’s expected to support a strategy for creating a clinical development and regulatory process, particularly in the U.S., out of Tissium’s Boston affiliate office.

“This new round of funding is a testament to the support we continue to receive from investors for our strategy and vision for the broad Tissium ecosystem of products that we have in development,” Tissium CEO Cristophe Bancel said in a news release. “We look forward to moving swiftly towards multiple verticals and expanding into new clinical fields in the coming months.”

In addition to the funding, Tissium announced that medtech entrepreneur and executive Jay Watkins is joining the company’s board of directors as an independent chairman.

“We are thrilled to have Jay joining our board as chairman,” Bancel said. “He brings tremendous experience and depth in building innovative medtech companies into next-generation leaders and will allow us to shape and expand our ecosystem into multiple verticals. I take the opportunity to thank our co-founder, Bernard Gilly, co-founder and chairman of iBionext, who has led the company as its chairman since our inception.”

“I am delighted to join Tissium as chairman,” Watkins added. “I have been impressed with the breadth of applications for its biomorphic programmable polymers across a wide range of therapeutic fields. The organization has already demonstrated its ability to innovate and create novel product opportunities and I look forward to working with the team to extend our impact in the medtech space.”