MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Underdog Pharmaceuticals, a key investment of Michael Greve's rejuvenation biotech VC Kizoo, has closed a $10 million round of capital. Kizoo led the company’s Series Seed II round, which saw participation from both existing and new investors.
Accounting for up to 40% of deaths in Europe and the United States, cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and strokes are by far the world’s most life-threatening conditions. Their primary cause is atherosclerosis—the buildup of plaque in the arterial walls. Underdog’s engineered synthetic carbohydrate compound, UDP-003, is designed to target and remove toxic oxidized cholesterol, a key driver of arterial plaque accumulation. Underdog was recently awarded the Innovation Passport under the United Kingdom’s Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP). This will enable faster patient access to its groundbreaking treatment for the prevention of heart attacks and stroke. The company expects to begin clinical trials in 2023.
Mike Kope, Underdog Co-CEO, said: "The ILAP award together with the new funds will enable us to further advance to deliver a simple and affordable preventive therapy for the world."
"We are really into this. This is the first deployment from our $360M commitment to fund the most promising rejuvenation startups through follow-up rounds to advance the therapies from clinical development to public availability," said Frank Schueler, Managing Director of Kizoo Technology Capital.
About KIZOO
Kizoo provides mentoring, seed and follow-on financing with a focus on rejuvenation biotech. Having been entrepreneurs, VCs, and mentors in both high-growth tech and biotech companies ourselves for many years with multiple exits and massive value created for the founders, Kizoo now brings this experience to the emerging field of rejuvenation biotech. We see it as a young industry that will eventually outgrow today's largest technology markets.
As part of Michael Greve’s Forever Healthy Group, Kizoo directly supports the creation of startups turning research on the root causes of aging into therapies and services for human application. Investments include Cellvie, Underdog, Revel Pharmaceuticals, Elastrin Therapeutics, and others.
Forever Healthy's other initiatives include the evaluation of new rejuvenation therapies, evidenced-based curation of the world's cutting-edge medical knowledge, funding research projects on the root causes of aging and hosting the annual Undoing Aging Conference.
Further information, please visit: www.kizoo.com and www.forever-healthy.org.
About Underdog
Underdog Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is pursuing a mission to treat the underlying causes of age-related disease. The company develops simple and direct interventions targeting oxidized cholesterol using rationally designed molecules, to provide the first true disease-modifying treatments for common age-related conditions such as atherosclerosis, heart attack and stroke. Its products are based on novel derivatives of a well-known, safe compound and a new way of looking at cardiovascular disease. For more information, please visit www.underdogpharma.com.
| Media Contact for Kizoo: | Media Contact for Underdog: | |
| Frank Schueler | Mike Kope | |
| Managing Director | Co-CEO | |
| Kizoo Technology Capital | Underdog Pharmaceuticals Inc | |
| fs@kizoo.com | press@underdogpharma.com |
