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Avammune Therapeutics, a bengaluru-based healthtech startup, has raised INR 100 crore ($12 million) in a Series A funding round co-led by Capital 2B, Shastra VC, and Kotak Alternate Asset Managers’ Life Sciences Fund I. The round also saw participation from IvyCap Ventures, 1Crowd, and other investors, underscoring growing interest in Indian biopharma innovation.
Founded in 2020 by Arun B Papaiah, Srinivasan Namala, and Aditya Kulkarni, Avammune focuses on developing small molecule medicines that modulate the immune system to treat cancer and autoimmune disorders. The new capital will be used to strengthen the company’s intellectual property portfolio and support both the clinical development of its lead drug candidate, AVA-NP-695, and the preclinical pipeline of other molecules.
“This funding validates our extensive preclinical datasets and empowers us to accelerate the development of our lead program into the clinic for addressing critical unmet needs in oncology,” said Papaiah, co-founder of Avammune.
AVA-NP-695 is an ENPP1 inhibitor that has shown promising anti-tumor results in preclinical studies across multiple cancer types, including osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma, and breast cancer. Highlighting its potential, chief scientific officer, Aditya Kulkarni noted, “The best-in-class profile of AVA-NP-695 combined with its strong antitumor activity in veterinary cancers in ‘compassionate use’ settings demonstrates a differentiated dataset in the field.”
For example, companies like Boltzmann and immunitoAI are leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate molecule screening and target identification. Global players are also taking notice. Danish pharma major Novo Nordisk, maker of the weight-loss drug Wegovy, partnered last year with 10 Indian AI startups to streamline various processes, from document summarisation to data analysis.
The momentum is evident across the ecosystem. In another key development, biotech firm Ahammune Biosciences raised INR 41 crore ($5 million) in a Series A round last year to fund phase II clinical trials for its vitiligo treatment candidate.
The country recently introduced its first indigenous macrolide antibiotic, Nafithromycin, a sign of its maturing R&D capabilities. Simultaneously, healthtech and biotech startups are pushing innovation, especially in AI-led drug discovery and development. Avammune’s raise adds to the growing list of Indian biotech firms pushing the frontier of drug discovery, with global ambitions and increasingly validated science.
