SRTD Biotech's $34M Seed Round: A New Era for mRNA Therapies?

Jan de Vries · 2026-11-09

SRTD Biotech, a Jülich-based startup, just closed an oversubscribed $34 million Seed round (€31.5 million) to push precision mRNA therapies forward. The company is tackling one of the biggest challenges in mRNA medicine: making therapies that hit diseased cells without affecting healthy ones. ### The Funding Lineup The round was led by Mérieux Equity Partners, with NRW.BANK and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund as co-leads. Lilly Ventures, HTGF, and Freiburg-based family office Anobis Asset also joined in. 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." ### How It Works Founded in 2019 by Dr. Bernd Hoffmann and Dr. Heribert Bohlen, SRTD uses intracellular RNA disease markers to activate mRNA expression only in target cells. These selectively expressed RNA (seRNA) constructs allow controlled production of therapeutic payloads inside diseased cells while minimizing exposure to healthy tissue. This could lead to safer, more effective RNA therapies that overcome the limitations of non-selective mRNA expression and the constraints of targeting cell-surface proteins. ### Three Platforms, One Mission SRTD combines three technology platforms: - Proprietary seRNA technology - A novel fusogenic LNP delivery platform to reach the liver, lung, brain, and other organs - A synthetic biology platform with bioinformatics and AI-driven RNA design This integrated approach provides an end-to-end solution for generating differentiated RNA therapies across a wide range of diseases. ### Leadership Boost After the financing, Matthias Alder was appointed CEO. He brings senior C-suite experience from publicly traded biotech companies in the US and Europe. "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," Alder said. Dr. Heinz Koeppl joined as CTO and founder of SRTD’s synthetic biology platform. He is also a professor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and director of its Centre for Synthetic Biology. Together with Dr. Hoffmann, he will lead scientific strategy, focusing on RNA marker identification and AI-based construct optimization. Most recently, Dr. Jens Hennecke joined as Chief Business Officer, responsible for business development and strategy, including R&D collaborations beyond SRTD’s own pipeline. > "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." – Johanna Antonie Tjaden-Schulte, Member of NRW.BANK’s Managing Board. With this fresh capital and a strengthened team, SRTD Biotech is poised to make waves in the mRNA space. Keep an eye on this one.