This summer St. Louis saw 100 companies compete in 10 pitch competitions to qualify for last nights Startup World Cup – STL event. Immunophotonics (a startup bizblip readers first heard about in Dec. 2023) took home the cup and will represent the St. Louis area next month in Silicon Valley at the Startup World Cup, run by Pegasus Tech Ventures.
Emily Hemingway, TechSTL Ex. Dir.
“Immunophotonics represents one of the strongest growth industries in the region,” TechSTL Executive Director Emily Hemingway told bizblip. “They have done an incredible job of leveraging all of the powerful resources and programs the St. Lois area has to offer, to support the development of their life-changing product. What a great way to end our first year in the Startup World Cup.”
TechSTL ran the St. Louis qualifier, and this is the first year for our region to participate. But there are more than 70 other cities around the globe who send their best to compete for a $1M investment and global recognition.
Immunophotonics’ first drug, named IP-001 (for now), aims to transform traditional tumor destruction techniques into a systemic whole-body immunotherapy, providing targeted treatment for cancer patients wherever the disease may be.
Founded in 2008 in Columbia, MO the research startup is now based in St. Louis, Missouri, working primarily out of the BioGenerator Labs with access to animal research facilities, general labs, and resources for their clinical trials. In addition to their recent clinical success, Immunophotonics has amassed over 50 patents globally. According to Tracxn.com the company has raised more than $28 million in nine rounds, with the most recent Series B for $3.45M landing in Feb. 2023, following another Series B for $21.4M in April, 2022. Investors include Zubizoom, iSelect Fund, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Cultivation Capital, Missouri Technology Corp. and St. Louis Arch Angels.
In 2021 the company was awarded $400,000 by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, to further develop the synthetic biopolymer, IP-001, “to potentiate asystemic immunotherapy via microwave thermal tumor ablation for treatment of Hepatocellular
carcinoma”.
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