Ovo Labs raises £4m in seed funding to advance its fertility therapeutics toward clinical trials.
The seed round was co-led by Creator Fund and LocalGlobe to help the biotech startup move its egg-quality treatment toward the clinic.
Share allotment filed at Companies House
Ovo Labs is a biotechnology startup developing therapeutics to improve egg quality and address age-related infertility.
London-based fertility biotech startup Ovo Labs has secured £4m in seed funding to transition its lead therapeutic from the laboratory to clinical application. The investment round was co-led by Creator Fund and LocalGlobe, with participation from Blue Wire Capital, Ahren Innovation Capital, and Antonio Pellicer.
The company was founded by reproductive biology researchers Professor Melina Schuh, Dr Agata Zielinska, and Dr Oleksandr Yagensky. Their work focuses on targeting aneuploidy and enhancing the quality of unfertilised human eggs ex vivo to improve outcomes for women undergoing IVF.
Creator Fund and LocalGlobe backed the round to support the team as they advance their preclinical therapies toward clinical trials. The capital will enable the organisation to scale its operations and develop its treatments at its facilities.
From the founder
"Ovo Labs’ mission is to make the dream of parenthood a reality for millions of couples who struggle to conceive. By helping to increase the number of viable eggs, we aim to extend the reproductive window, empowering more couples to have children at a time that feels right to them. Ovo Labs’ technology also offers a potential solution for declining birth rates, which is a trend observed in many countries worldwide."
Melina Schuh
Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor at Ovo Labs
Investor perspective
"This company has been twenty years in the making. It is the product of decades of pioneering scientific work to understand the origin of human life and why age impacts our ability to reproduce. It is inspiring to see European scientists of this calibre launch a company solving such a fundamental question facing humanity. We believe that the science at the heart of this business has the potential to change whether, when and how couples have children."
Jamie Macfarlane
Deal Lead, Creator Fund
Use of funds
- 01Fund research and development
- 02Scale operations
Investors
Jamie Macfarlane
Creator Fund
Emma Phillips
LocalGlobe
Blue Wire Capital
Ahren Innovation Capital
Antonio Pellicer