Helex raises $3.5 Mn in seed round led by pi Ventures

Helex, a therapeutics startup developing a new class of targeted medicines for genetic kidney diseases, has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by pi Ventures, along with participation from Bluehill Capital, SOSV, and a global syndicate of investors.

With this round, Helex has raised over $6 million in total funding to date. The proceeds will be used to accelerate its lead candidate for Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) while advancing its platform to establish a differentiated kidney therapeutics portfolio, Helex said in a press release.

Co-founded in 2021 by Poulami Chaudhuri, Rohini Kalvakuntla, and Anirudh Nishtala, Helex is a therapeutics company developing a new class of targeted medicines for genetic kidney diseases using its proprietary LNP drug delivery and AI-based drug design platforms.

Incubated at ASPIRE-BioNEST, University of Hyderabad, Helex aims to bring a paradigm shift in the treatment of chronic and rare kidney disorders by developing programmable, non-viral LNP therapeutics that deliver genetic payloads directly to kidney cells.

According to Helex, its platform is powered by data-driven deep learning modeling using its own genomics data, bioinformatics, and high-throughput sequencing data from gene-edited target cells to create, verify, and deliver disease-specific gRNA.

Helex says that its lead program targets Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD), a progressive inherited disorder affecting more than 12 million people globally and nearly 5% of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients in India. It aims to change that with a single-dose, non-viral, gene-editing-based therapy that could halt or significantly slow disease progression.