HexemBio, a biotechnology company focused on regenerative medicine, has emerged from stealth with $10.4 million in seed funding to advance a novel blood stem cell rejuvenation therapy. The round was led by Draper Associates with participation from SOSV, Seraphim, and other strategic investors.
The company is developing a platform to restore the function of aging hematopoietic stem cells, which generate all blood and immune cells in the body. As these cells deteriorate over time, they contribute to weakened immunity, chronic inflammation, and a range of diseases, including cancer and neurodegeneration.
HexemBio’s approach differs from traditional methods such as gene editing or chemical reprogramming. Instead, the company recreates the early developmental environment in which blood stem cells are originally formed. Its proprietary Synthetic Human Yolk Sac technology places a patient’s own stem cells into this environment outside the body, rejuvenating them before reintroducing them via standard IV infusion.
Preclinical results supporting the platform have been published in Nature, with additional studies under review. The company plans to initially target improvements in bone marrow transplant outcomes for patients with blood cancers such as AML and ALL. Its lead program has already received FDA Orphan Drug Designation and completed a Pre-IND meeting, positioning it for IND-enabling studies ahead of planned human trials in early 2027.
The founding team brings experience from institutions including MIT, UC Berkeley, Harvard, and Y Combinator. CEO and Co-Founder Gabriel Levesque Tremblay has led regulatory and fundraising efforts, while CTO and Co-Founder Samira Kiani is a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Chief Scientific Officer Mo Ebrahimkhani is credited as the inventor of the core technology.
The seed funding will support the completion of IND-enabling studies and GMP manufacturing as the company advances toward first-in-human trials.
KEY QUOTES:
“HexemBio discovered a way to renew a patient’s own stem cells rather than chemically or genetically reprogramming them. That kind of foundational biological innovation is exactly the type of high-conviction investment we look for.”
Tim Draper, Founding Partner, Draper Associates
“Most innovations in bone marrow transplant rely on the use of harsh treatments such as high levels of cytokines, or genetic engineering which can stress or often exhaust stem cells. Our co-founders asked a different question: what if we simply gave aging stem cells back the environment they had at the beginning of life?”
Gabriel Levesque Tremblay, CEO And Co-Founder, HexemBio
“Recreating the developmental environment where blood stem cells are first produced represents a fundamentally new strategy. It is very different from transcription-factor reprogramming or gene editing, and the early data are extremely compelling.”
Robert S. Langer, Institute Professor, MIT, And Co-Founder, Moderna
