[Funding Roundup] Avammune Therapeutics, Corn Junction, and Quali55care raise early-stage deals

Avammune Therapeutics receives funding from The Chennai Angels

Avammune Therapeutics Inc has secured financing from The Chennai Angels for completion of IND enabling studies for their Immuno-oncology asset.

The company said the funding will help advance Avammune’s assets for oncology and autoimmune disorders. 

According to Dr Aditya Kulkarni, Chief Scientific Officer, Avammune, “We are developing a novel class of drugs that harnesses the body’s first line of defence against pathogens to combat cancer. These highly effective drugs can potentially overcome the resistance to current drugs and due to their chemical nature can be taken by the patient as oral tablets and are potentially more affordable alternatives to biological drugs.”

Avammune is in advanced discussions with major pharma and biotech companies for partnering for clinical translation of the assets and in parallel with strategic investors for taking the assets through clinical testing independently.

Arun B Papaiah, CEO, Avammune said, “Avammune’s technology platform has been validated in various animal models and is gearing up for safety studies. With the influx of funding, we are hoping to complete these safety studies and are gearing up for partnerships for entering clinical testing next year. This latest round of funding will also allow us to further strengthen our diversified pipeline of drugs for cancers and autoimmune diseases. It is a pleasure working with The Chennai Angels who join existing and other new investors and are excited to bring them on board as partners.”

Avammune is in advanced discussions with major pharma and biotech companies for partnering for clinical translation of the assets and in parallel with strategic investors for taking the assets through clinical testing independently.

Sameer Mehta, Director, Mehta's Multispecialty Hospital India Pvt Ltd, and the Lead Investor from The Chennai Angels, said, despite tremendous progress being made in the discovery and development of new medicines for cancer, the disease continues to affect millions every year. TCA is happy to be part of Avammune’s development of Immuno-oncology assets.

Corn Junction gets pre-seed funding led by GetFunded

Uttar Pradesh-based startup Corn Junction has received an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding led by GetFunded, a Lucknow-based platform that is helping startups from ideation to scaling. 

GetFunded is co-founded by mother-son duo Aparna and Aditya Mishra.

“We thought of starting a dedicated platform to provide solutions to the startup communities, which will have answers to all their queries and doubts regarding new and existing ventures,” said Aparna, who has been in the startup ecosystem for many years and has gathered good experience of working and mentoring startups from across India.

“With GetFunded, we aim to reach out to millions of startups, upcoming new ventures, and entrepreneurs to help them in doing sustainable businesses,” Aparna added.

In the next year, Corn Junction aims to open the door for over 50 small farmers to grow sweet corn over an area of 100+ acres in eastern UP and will be the hub for supplying fresh, natural sweet corn to Corn Junction’s various outlets.

On the other hand, Corn junction will expand its outlets up to 100 in Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, etc., which will eventually generate over 140 employment opportunities for youngsters.

Also, the startup is all set to expand and rework their strategies and look forward to presenting corn in very tasty, zingy, and healthy flavours.

Healthtech startup Quali55care raises $100K from ah! Ventures

Mumbai-based healthtech startup Quali55care has raised an angel round of $100,000 from ah! Ventures Angel Platform. With this, ah! Ventures’ has done 140 investments in 104 startups till date, taking its total investment portfolio to Rs 285 crore (~$37 million) with 14 exits and 28 follow on rounds.

According to Harddik K Patel, CEO and Founder of quali55care, the funds will be allocated towards tech development for better customer experience, product offerings, taking the distribution process to the next level, and on boarding new talent to optimise the team for its future goals.

Founded by Harddik K Patel in 2018, Quali55care has scaled up over 5x in the past year. It aims to solve the problem of accessing durable medical equipment for home care with affordability. Medical equipment rental market is very unorganised and lacking transparency in terms of offerings. Quali55care is making it more organised via its online platform, which has clear pricing transparency, uniform supply and quality and making it more accessible, affordable, reliable.

Quali55care is currently operating in Mumbai and Pune and offering its rental solutions via its website.

(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)