Irish-founded Ochre Bio raises $30m in Series A funding round

Irish-founded start-up Ochre Bio has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round that will support testing of its therapies, and expand its drug discovery platforms and to advance research into liver disease.

The Oxford-based start-up, which specialises in developing RNA therapies for chronic liver diseases, was cofounded by Athlone native and University of Galway graduate Jack O’Meara along with Quinn Wills in 2019.

Among the investors in the round were Khosla Ventures, Hermes-Epitek, Backed VC, and LifeForce Capital, with health innovation network EIT Health contributing $500,000 after Ochre Bio participated in its Gold Track accelerator programme.

“Chronic liver disease is now the third leading cause of premature death in much of the developed world. At Ochre Bio we aim to use transplant research as a way to way to de-risk and develop therapies that will treat those affected,” said Mr O’Meara.

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“Participating on EIT Health’s Gold Track programme gave us direct access to industry leaders who could advise and open doors for us. The people involved in Gold Track are top drawer and we have remained in touch with many of them until today. The Series A investment, with EIT Health as part of the investor syndicate, will enable us to further the development of promising therapies for liver diseases, one of the most important and underserved public health challenges of our time.”

Chronic liver disease caused almost 300,000 deaths in Europe in 2019, with liver stress at the heart of several cardiometabolic diseases, and a risk factor for heart attack, stroke and diabetes. However, a lack of treatment options leaves many patients with no option except a liver transplant, and demand can often outstrip supply. Many livers are considered too fatty for use, further shrinking the available pool of organs for transplant.

Ochre Bio is working to improve the viability of donor livers, “reprogramming” the liver and testing RNA therapies on those that are discarded due to fatty liver disease.

“The prevalence of chronic liver disease is on the rise among patients in Europe driven by factors like obesity and diabetes. Start-ups such as Ochre Bio, that are developing game-changing solutions to solve rising unmet clinical needs, are perfect candidates to join EIT Health’s Gold Track programme,” said Christina Hertel, head of asset management at EIT Health’s Invest Health and programme director for Gold Track.

EIT-Health Ireland-UK’s Marc Butterly noted it was the third time in two years that Khosla Ventures had backed an EIT-alumni company.

“We congratulate Jack and the team for moving at incredible pace on their growth journey, accelerated by their work with EIT Health’s Gold Track programme. We also celebrate that Khosla Ventures has stood up to fund an EIT-alumni company for the third time in 24 months.” said Marc Butterly, Business Creation Lead at EIT Health Ireland-UK.

The latest funding comes after Ochre Bio raise $9.6 million in seed funding in 2021.