Cyclana Bio, a biotechnology company pioneering tissue-level approaches to women’s health, announced the closing of a £5 million pre-seed funding round, co-led by NfX and Eka VC, with participation from Cocoa VC, Wilbe, and several angel investors. The funding will accelerate the development of Cyclana’s tissue-based drug discovery platform and support the company’s observational clinical trial aimed at improving outcomes for women with endometriosis.
Endometriosis affects one in ten women worldwide and is characterized by chronic pain, inflammation, and infertility. Despite its prevalence, the disease remains poorly understood and under-researched. Current therapies often fail to address the underlying biological mechanisms, leaving many patients without effective treatment options. Cyclana Bio is taking a fundamentally new approach, combining whole-tissue disease modeling with AI-driven data integration to identify druggable targets and novel biomarkers at the level where disease first emerges — the tissue itself.
Cyclana’s scientific breakthroughs include identifying the crucial role of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in endometriosis. The company’s research demonstrates that ECM dysregulation drives inflammation and tissue dysfunction, yet most prior drug development has focused only on intracellular pathways. By targeting the interactions between cells and the ECM, Cyclana aims to uncover previously inaccessible therapeutic opportunities.
The company’s proprietary models are built using menstrual fluid donations from an ongoing observational clinical trial, which enables the recreation of functional disease environments in the lab. This methodology not only supports the discovery of early biomarkers but also facilitates the identification of novel treatment targets for endometriosis and other chronic inflammatory diseases that share similar tissue-level mechanisms.
How the funding will be used: With this funding, Cyclana Bio plans to expand its research pipeline and scale its platform to address additional diseases that disproportionately affect women but remain overlooked in traditional biomedical discovery frameworks.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our mission at Cyclana is not just to close the gender health gap but propel women to the forefront of drug discovery. We are redefining how therapies are developed, starting with the basic science, by zooming out and studying disease at the level where it truly emerges: the tissue itself. By raising venture capital as our first source of financing, we are building a model with the consumer, the patient, at the centre. We now have not only the privilege but also the responsibility to generate the best pipeline to bring new treatments to the clinic.”
Dr. Léa Wenger, CEO and Co-Founder, Cyclana Bio
“Our goal is not just to develop new treatments, but to change the framework of biomedical discovery itself. By starting with women’s health, we’re addressing one of the greatest unmet needs in medicine. In doing so, we will not only cure a debilitating disease many women suffer from, we will also set the stage for a broader transformation in how we understand and treat chronic disease.”
Prof. Kevin Chalut, CSO and Co-Founder, Cyclana Bio
