Nouscom raises €120m for cancer immunotherapy

Nouscom has closed a €120m financing round to advance its cancer immunotherapy pipeline, with Angelini Ventures and M Ventures named among the backers, Global Venturing reports.

The €120m commitment ranks among the more sizable private biotech financings announced this year in Europe, where oncology remains the busiest corner of therapeutic investing. The round gives Nouscom, an immuno-oncology company, fresh capital to push its programs toward later-stage clinical work.

Angelini Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Italy's Angelini Industries, and M Ventures, the venture arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, joined the round. Both investors have made oncology a recurring theme in their portfolios. Their participation signals corporate strategic interest in Nouscom's platform, not just financial backing.

What is Nouscom building?

Nouscom develops cancer immunotherapies. The company's work sits in immuno-oncology, a field where venture funding has stayed resilient even as broader biotech financing cooled from its 2021 peak.

The €120m figure is the hard number in this deal. It's the kind of check that lets a biotech run multiple clinical programs simultaneously rather than betting the company on a single asset.

Why do corporate VCs matter here?

The presence of two corporate venture arms — Angelini Ventures and M Ventures — matters beyond the money. Corporate investors typically bring development expertise, manufacturing connections and potential strategic options that pure financial investors don't.

M Ventures, backed by Merck KGaA, has a long record in biotech therapeutics investing. Angelini Ventures, meanwhile, has been expanding its healthcare portfolio from its base in Rome. Both chose Nouscom's cancer immunotherapy platform as a destination for capital in this round.

What happens next?

The capital will fund the company's continued clinical development in cancer immunotherapy. For European biotech, a €120m round of this profile is a data point worth watching: it suggests investors with corporate depth are still writing large checks for oncology platforms, even in a selective market.

By Amara Osei