Three Finnish university spinouts receive healthy funding

Each of the three university spinouts is working on novel treatments for widespread neurological diseases – Kasvu on potent neuroplasticity enhancers to tackle addiction, depression and post-traumatic stress, Polku on small-molecule drugs for neurodegenerative diseases, and Soihtu DTx on a game-based treatment for depression.

“These one-year-old companies have collectively raised about 10 million euros with notable participation from international investors,” Pekka Simula, partner at the life sciences arm at Innovestor, said.

Innovestor has to date invested in 12 digital health and pharmaceutical companies through the 90-million euro fund, with the strategic focus of collaborating closely with research groups to spin out science-backed companies from universities. The approach has produced great results, according to Simula.

“These three new investments are a great example of this strategy.”

Kasvu, for example, has already demonstrated that small molecules can function as potently enhance neuroplasticity without the hallucinations associated with legal and illegal psychedelics, a much-talked-about research avenue in the field. Addiction, depression and post-traumatic stress – all conditions characterised by maladaptive neuroplasticity – afflict hundreds of millions of people around the globe.

Depression is also the focus of Soihtu DTx, which is expected to unveil the first tranche of clinical data on its digital therapy that brings together elements of game design, neuroscience and psychology.

Polku’s focus is on neurodegenerative diseases with some of the greatest socio-economic burdens worldwide, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.