LEIDEN, APRIL 4, 2025 — Well, that just happened! After countless late nights in the lab, enough caffeine to fill the Rhine, and more pipette tips than we care to count, AVIGI Therapeutics has officially secured €350,000 in funding from the UNIIQ fund. (Yes, we're screaming internally too!)
THE COLD HARD CASH
This injection of capital comes as part of UNIIQ's €2.1 million investment spree across six South Holland startups that are actually doing something about the problems everyone else just complains about. The announcement dropped today from Meindert Stolk, Provincial Executive for Economy and Innovation, who apparently thinks we're onto something big. (We agree.)
"When we started AVIGI, we were just scientists with a crazy idea and absolutely zero business experience," admits our slightly-less-disheveled-these-days CEO. "This funding doesn't just validate our science—it means we can finally act as a company."
FROM ACADEMIC PAPERS TO ACTUAL IMPACT
Let's be real: transitioning from academia to startup life has been a wild ride. One day you're writing papers only twelve people will ever read, the next you're pitching to investors who want to know your five-year commercialization strategy. (Spoiler: we figured it out.)
The funding lands at a critical moment when healthcare desperately needs fresh approaches. We're not just creating another incremental improvement—we're fundamentally rethinking drug design from first principles.
WE'RE IN GOOD COMPANY
AVIGI joins five other startups in this funding round, each tackling massive challenges:
Healthcare Revolutionaries:
- Us (obviously) - Stopping unstoppable disease cascades
- 1NA - Doing things with DNA we can't even explain at family dinners
- LEVEN VISION - Making humans obsolete in diagnostics
Digital Defenders:
- ChatLicense - Because your online identity actually matters
- Fiducial - 3D so good it makes designers cry
Planet Savers:
- SeaHiker - Making offshore wind installation actually work
WHAT'S NEXT?
With this funding, we're scaling faster than our cell cultures. We're:
- Doubling down on core technology
- Bringing on talent who are as obsessed as we are
- Advancing toward clinical validation that could change treatment paradigms
"The leap from university lab to viable biotech is where many brilliant ideas go to die," notes a UNIIQ representative who saw our potential through the mess of our first pitch deck. "We're investing in AVIGI because they've cracked a scientific challenge while building the business acumen to actually bring it to patients."
ABOUT US (THE QUICK VERSION)
AVIGI Therapeutics: A Leiden University spinout transforming how we approach advanced solid tumors. Founded by Dr. Lit and Dr. Ruijgrok researchers who refused to accept that current treatments are "good enough." Learn more at www.avigitx.com.
UNIIQ: The €28.8 million fund that gambles on innovations when they're still too early and risky for everyone else. Backed by Erasmus MC, TU Delft, Leiden University and InnovationQuarter. They're at www.uniiq.nl.
