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Founded in 2021 by Christopher Trummer and Jakob Hohenberger, Celeris Therapeutics is a Menlo Park, California-based biotechnology company with laboratory operations in Graz, Austria, that develops AI-driven degrader drugs targeting undruggable proteins linked to oncology and central nervous system disorders. The organization utilizes its Celeris One machine learning platform to design proximity-inducing compounds for targeted protein degradation. Operating a hybrid business model, the firm advances an internal pipeline of five drug programs while maintaining collaborative partnerships with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The enterprise has raised more than 18 million dollars in total funding to date, securing capital from venture investors including R42, Longevitytech Fund, and the i&i Biotech Fund. To support clinical development and a planned expansion of 25 new employees, the company recently appointed John Harling as Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board.
Celeris Therapeutics has raised $470K across 1 funding round.
Celeris Therapeutics has raised $470K in total across 1 funding round.
Celeris Therapeutics has raised $470K across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $470K Seed in March 2021.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 1, 2021 | $470K Seed | — | R42 Group | Announced |
Celeris Therapeutics has raised $470K in total across 1 funding round.
Celeris Therapeutics's investors include R42 Group.
Celeris Therapeutics is an AI-first biotechnology company developing novel degrader drugs, known as proximity-inducing compounds (PICs) or protein degraders, to target undruggable pathogenic proteins linked to diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and various cancers.[1][2][4] It serves pharmaceutical and biotech partners through collaborations while advancing an in-house pipeline, using its Celeris One™ platform—powered by machine learning and geometric deep learning—to accelerate design of E3 ligase-based degraders, linker optimization, and compound synthesis, supported by automated wet labs.[1][2][3] The company solves the challenge of "undruggable" targets by predicting biomolecular interactions and generating new chemical entities faster than traditional methods, addressing high unmet needs in oncology and CNS disorders with global operations in Menlo Park (CA), London (UK), and Graz (Austria).[1][2][4]
Founded in 2020-2021, Celeris has gained early traction via seed funding (including from EIF-backed i&i Biotech Fund), big pharma partnerships, and team expansion to ~25 new R&D roles, positioning it for preclinical advancement.[1][3][4]
Celeris Therapeutics emerged from the vision of co-founders Christopher Trummer (CEO, with expertise in biotech and computer science) and Jakob Hohenberger (serial tech entrepreneur entering life sciences).[1][3][4] Hohenberger, driven by the lack of curative treatments for diseases like Parkinson's ("It's 2022, and there's no curative treatment"), researched markets and pivoted to biotech in 2020, partnering with Trummer who brought a concrete AI-driven plan for degrader tech.[4] They started in a dry lab, coding and prototyping, before securing seed funding and establishing wet labs in Graz, Austria.[4][5]
Pivotal moments include closing seed rounds with investors like APEX Ventures and i&i Biotech Fund to fuel R&D, expanding to Silicon Valley, and onboarding experts like Dr. James Harling, a PROTAC pioneer from Arvinas, to lead innovation.[1][3][4] This blend of AI, computational chemistry, and wet-lab validation humanizes their mission: "benefiting people" by tackling incurable diseases.[4]
Celeris rides the AI-drug discovery wave intersecting with targeted protein degradation (TPD), a trend exploding as degraders like PROTACs (pioneered by alumni like Arvinas) enter clinics, expanding the "druggable" proteome beyond traditional inhibitors.[1][2] Timing is ideal amid post-2020 AI booms (e.g., AlphaFold impacts) and biotech's push for undruggable targets in neurodegeneration and oncology, where ~80% of disease proteins remain untapped.[3][4]
Market forces favor Celeris: surging VC into AI-biotech hybrids, big pharma's degrader deals (e.g., partnerships noted), and regulatory tailwinds for novel modalities.[2][4] It influences the ecosystem by democratizing degrader design—faster synthesis cycles reduce costs/risks—potentially lowering barriers for startups and incumbents tackling CNS/oncology gaps.[1][5]
Celeris is poised for preclinical milestones and Series A, with big pharma collaborations likely yielding first IND filings in Parkinson's or oncology within 2-3 years, bolstered by wet-lab scaling and AI refinements.[1][2][4] Trends like multimodal AI (integrating wet data loops) and TPD expansion to new E3 ligases will propel it, amid a market projected to grow as degraders prove in trials.[3]
Its influence may evolve from pioneer to platform leader, licensing Celeris One™ widely or spinning out assets, ultimately delivering the first AI-designed degrader cures—echoing its origin as a mission to alleviate "incurable" suffering.[4]
