Infinitopes Raises £12.8M Seed Round to Advance AI-Designed Cancer Vaccines Into the Clinic

April 30, 2024

Infinitopes Precision Immunomics, a clinical-stage cancer biotech spun out of the University of Oxford with support from Cancer Research UK, has completed an oversubscribed £12.8 million seed financing round. The round was led by Octopus Ventures and drew co-investment from Cancer Research Horizons, Cancer Research Institute, CRIS Cancer Foundation, Kindred Capital, Manta Ray, Martlet Capital, Meltwind Advisory, Saras Capital, and Wilbe Capital, alongside expert angel investors. A non-dilutive contribution from Innovate UK's Future Economy Investor Partnership scheme is also included in the total. The round reflects exceptional investor conviction in both the science and the founding team.

Cancer vaccines have long promised to transform oncology by training the immune system to recognise and destroy tumour cells — but translating that promise into clinical reality has repeatedly stumbled on the same set of problems: identifying the right tumour antigens to target, delivering those antigens in a way that provokes a durable immune response, and doing so without requiring a bespoke, personalised process for each patient. Infinitopes was founded to solve all three simultaneously. The company is built on research developed in the laboratories of Professor Paul Klenerman and Associate Professor Nicola Ternette at Oxford, and is led by CEO Jonathan Kwok.

The company's Precision Immunomics platform uses next-generation LC-MS/MS mass spectrometry combined with proprietary AI and machine learning to identify and rank tumour antigens — the molecular signatures present on cancer cells that immune cells can be trained to recognise — without prior bias or assumptions about which targets matter. This unbiased antigen discovery is paired with Infinitopes' proprietary vector delivery systems, which are engineered to stimulate durable T-cell responses sufficient to prevent the recurrence of metastases. Together, the two platforms are designed to produce accessible, non-personalised cancer vaccines that can be manufactured at scale and applied across multiple tumour types.

Infinitopes' lead asset, ITOP1, was scheduled to enter a Phase I/IIa clinical study in first-line cancer patients in the third quarter of 2024, an unusually rapid progression from incorporation in 2021 to clinical stage. This trajectory was accelerated by an Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway innovation passport awarded by the MHRA in August 2022, and by two maximum-size non-dilutive awards from Innovate UK — a Cancer Therapeutics Award in 2022 and the Future Economy Investor Partnership in 2023. The new capital will fund installation of best-in-class mass spectrometer equipment to enhance antigen discovery capabilities and expand the platform to cover five additional cancer indications.

Octopus Ventures led the round based on the team's progress in designing, developing, and clinically assessing novel cancer vaccines. Kindred Capital's John W Cassidy described the company as combining scientific acumen with technological foresight to architect a new frontier in cancer care. By the time of the funding announcement, the Infinitopes team had grown from three academic co-founders to 28 full-time equivalents, reflecting the breadth of in-house expertise across antigen discovery, immunology, vaccinology, biomanufacturing, and regulatory science that the company has assembled to execute on its clinical ambitions.

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