Alentis Therapeutics
From foundation to closing Switzerland’s largest annual financing round in just 6 years
Alentis Therapeutics is a clinical stage Swiss French biotech company, spun out of the University of Strasbourg. Alentis develops breakthrough treatments targeting Claudin-1, which plays a key role in many solid tumors and fibrosis.
Alentis was founded in 2018 and was financed, incubated and built in close collaboration between Prof. Thomas Baumert, the scientific founder of Alentis, and the BaseLaunch team. The work culminated in Alentis closing a Series A funding round in early 2019, co-led by Pureos Bioventures, BioMedPartners and BPI. Subsequent Series B, C and D rounds, with participation from Orbimed, Novo Holdings, RA Capital, Jeito and others, bring the total raised by the company to approximately US$366m.
Alentis, led by Roberto Iacone, is the world’s leading company in pioneering anti-CLDN1 ADCs and antibodies to modify and reverse the course of select diseases. Its rapid rise in the industry was confirmed in February 2025, when it was reported in the Swiss Venture Capital Report 2025 that they had closed the largest financing round (US$181.4m) in Switzerland in 2024.
”There is no other incubator like BaseLaunch, and Alentis would not exist without it. BaseLaunch has backed us in critical times and was invaluable in all aspects of getting the company launched, being it on licensing our IP, helping assemble the initial team, or supporting our Series A financing. To this day, from time to time we still make use of their support and incredible network.
Thomas BaumertFounder and Executive BoD
We asked Thomas Baumert for his advice to scientists who aspire to become biotech entrepreneurs – check out his 9 tips here.