Brisbane biotech Gelomics lands $2.2 million pre-Seed round for animal-free medical research

A Brisbane biotech startup eliminating the need for animal testing in pharmaceutical drug development has raised $2.2 million in pre-Seed funding.

The round for Gelomics was led by Andrea Gardiner’s Sydney VC Jelix Ventures, alongside the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) Enterprise Acceleration Fund and Angelloop. The cash injection is expected create more than 70 highly-skilled jobs over the next five years as the startup targets the US market.

Gelomics has developed a 3D tissue culture system that allows scientists to grow microscopic representations of human tissue, from tiny beating hearts to tumour tissues, in a petri dish. By better replicating human biology in a laboratory setting, their technology paves the way for more ethical, reliable, cost-effective, and efficient medical research and preclinical studies.

The startup has already demonstrated its market viability thanks to a demo-to-sales conversion rate above 80%, alongside securing over 250 returning customers across 22 international markets.

Gelomics cofounder and CEO Dr Christoph Meinert said that by improving the reliability of preclinical studies, the 3D tissue culture solution reduces unnecessary financial loss, time taken to market and the need for animal testing.

“Over 200 million animals are euthanised for research and drug development every year, despite over 90% of drug candidates failing in human trials after successful animal testing,” he said.

“This technology is not just a leap forward in terms of innovation; it is a paradigm shift towards creating life-like human tissue models in the lab, which are scalable to industrial requirements and fully compatible with current automated systems.”

Dr Meinert said the impact also extends to substantial reductions in the costs and ethical concerns associated with traditional research and development methodologies.

“With the support of the Jelix Ventures, QIC, and Angelloop, we look forward to expanding our team with top-tier talent in Brisbane while accelerating product development and executing a well-strategised market penetration plan in the United States,” he said.

QIC Private Equity Investment Director Patrick Christiansen said the investment allows Gelomics to position themselves as an emerging leader in the transformation of the pharmaceutical industry.

“The QIC Ventures team has been impressed with the deep technical expertise of the founding group, and importantly, their commercial nous and experience which compliments this,” he said.

“Through the Enterprise Acceleration Fund, we’re backing Gelomics’ vision to become the new gold standard adopted by laboratories around the world and the jobs this will create for Queensland.”