hephaistos.bio raises €161,000 to transform chemical manufacturing
The company aims to accelerate the development of customized enzymatic solutions for the pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing industries.
Swiss biotech startup hephaistos.bio has announced that it has secured €161,000 in funding from Venture Kick. The company aims to accelerate the development of customized enzymatic solutions for the pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing industries.
Chemical production remains heavily reliant on resource- and energy-intensive processes. As a result, the sector contributes significantly to emissions while exposing manufacturers to increasingly vulnerable global supply chains.
Although enzymes offer a promising alternative—enabling more efficient production, reducing costs, and lowering environmental impact—there is still a significant shortage of suitable biocatalysts for many critical industrial reactions, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.
To address this challenge, hephaistos.bio has developed an end-to-end enzyme design platform that combines computational biology, chemistry, machine learning, and structural biology.
Using this technology, the company creates tailor-made protein catalysts for chemical reactions that have traditionally been difficult or impossible to perform efficiently. This approach helps manufacturers streamline production processes while improving sustainability, resilience, and cost efficiency.
The startup’s long-term goal is to help pharmaceutical companies and specialty chemical manufacturers bring production back to Europe (reshoring) through more competitive and sustainable manufacturing processes. The potential of its technology has already been demonstrated through a pilot industrial project with Swiss research company SpiroChem.
The new funding from Venture Kick will enable hephaistos.bio to move into its next stage of development. Specifically, the capital will be used for:
Enzyme design campaigns: Supporting the next phase of industrial enzyme development.
Laboratory automation: Expanding and upgrading the company’s technical capabilities.
Hiring: Making the first key hires to strengthen the team.
Partnerships: Further developing the platform and expanding collaborations with industrial partners seeking economically viable alternatives.
The company was founded by an experienced team with deep expertise in chemistry, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including Lukas Radtke (CEO), Lucas Merlicek (CTO), Jannik Neumann (Head of Operations), Moritz Ullhofen (Head of Lab), and Ilya Schneider (Head of Business Development).
