Mérieux Innovation 2 invests in SRTD Biotech, a leading German biotechnology company

PRESS RELEASE

SRTD Biotech raises a €31.5 million seed round to develop next-generation precision mRNA therapeutics

The financing was led by Mérieux Equity Partners, and co-led by NRW.BANK and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, alongside Lilly Ventures and HTGF

Jülich, Germany – November 9, 2026 – SRTD Biotech (“SRTD”), a leading biotechnology company focused on developing next-generation precision mRNA therapeutics, today announces the successful completion of an oversubscribed €31.5 million seed financing round. The financing was led by Mérieux Equity Partners, with NRW.BANK and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund joining the syndicate as co-leads. Lilly Ventures, HTGF, and the Freiburg-based family Office Anobis Asset also participated in the seed round. The new capital will fund the preclinical development of SRTD’s pipeline of novel targeted RNA therapies across oncology, autoimmune and fibrosis indications towards Investigational New Drug (“IND”).

Co-founded by its Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Bernd Hoffmann in 2019 and headquartered in Jülich, Germany, SRTD has developed a groundbreaking approach to cell-specific messenger RNA (mRNA) expression using intracellular RNA disease markers that activate the mRNA expression exclusively within target cells. These selectively expressed RNA (seRNA) constructs enable the controlled expression of therapeutic payloads within diseased cells, while minimizing exposure in healthy tissue. With this novel approach, SRTD plans to create safer, more effective and differentiated RNA therapies that overcome limitations associated with non-selective mRNA expression and the constraints of targeting proteins on the cell surface.

SRTD is an integrated RNA therapeutics company combining three technology platforms: its proprietary seRNA technology, a novel fusogenic LNP delivery platform to access liver, lung, brain and other organs, and a synthetic biology platform with bioinformatics and AI-driven RNA design capabilities. This integrated technology platform provides an end-to-end solution for the generation of differentiated RNA therapies in a wide range of therapeutic areas and indications.

SRTD Expands Management Team

Following the financing round, Matthias Alder was appointed Chief Executive Officer of SRTD, bringing extensive leadership experience, strategic vision and his network in the biotechnology sector. He has held senior C-suite roles (including CEO, COO and CBO) at publicly traded biotech companies in the US and Europe, while also leading and executing more than $10 billion of biotechnology transactions over the course of his career. This experience will be instrumental in advancing the SRTD seRNA platform towards clinical development.

Together with Matthias Alder, Dr. Heinz Koeppl joined SRTD’s leadership team as the company’s Chief Technology Officer and the founder of SRTD’s synthetic biology platform. He is also a professor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and the director of its Centre for Synthetic Biology. Together with Dr. Hoffmann, Dr. Koeppl will lead the scientific strategy of SRTD, with a particular focus on RNA marker identification and AI-based construct optimization to ensure the selective and efficient activation of seRNA constructs.

Most recently, Dr. Jens Hennecke joined the executive leadership team of SRTD as its Chief Business Officer. Dr. Hennecke has more than 25 years of track record in executing outbound and inbound licensing deals and M&A transactions. He will drive business development and strategy of the company, seeking to leverage the company’s platform through R&D collaborations in therapeutic areas and indications beyond SRTD’s own product pipeline.

Mr. Alder commented: “We thank all our investors for joining this exceptional syndicate in one of the largest biotech seed financings in Europe to date. We are especially grateful to Mérieux Equity Partners for their vision, conviction, and unwavering support in building SRTD into an integrated RNA therapeutics company and establishing the differentiated platform that has attracted the participation of two leading global pharmaceutical companies in this financing. The proceeds will enable SRTD to advance Bernd’s vision of delivering safe, effective, and differentiated RNA therapeutics to patients whose diseases remain inadequately addressed by current therapies.”

Kristin Thompson, Director at Mérieux Equity Partners, said: “We believe SRTD Biotech has the potential to redefine what is possible with mRNA therapeutics. Its highly differentiated technology addresses one of the key challenges facing the field today: achieving precise, selective therapeutic activity while limiting effects on healthy cells. Having worked closely with the company to strengthen its strategy, build its leadership team and establish a scalable platform, we are delighted to lead this financing with our Mérieux Innovation 2 fund (MI2) alongside an exceptional group of investors. We look forward to supporting Matthias and the team as they advance a new generation of targeted therapies for patients with significant unmet medical needs.”

Johanna Antonie Tjaden-Schulte, Member of NRW.BANK’s Managing Board, adds: “SRTD Biotech shows how cutting-edge research from North Rhine-Westphalia can open up new ways to treat many diseases with significant unmet medical needs. Bringing innovations like these from research into medical practice takes capital. With our investment in SRTD Biotech, we are helping a highly innovative company develop a promising new technology in NRW and scale it internationally from here.” NRW.BANK is participating in SRTD Biotech’s financing round through its NRW.Venture EU Tech&Scale fund. Under its InvestEU partnership, a guarantee agreement with the European Commission enables NRW.BANK to invest a total of up to €200 million in additional funding in young scale-ups through the fund.