Basel biotech Nouscom has closed a Series D of 135 million dollars, Startupticker.ch reported on 19 October 2026, based on a company press release. The round is described as oversubscribed. The money has a precise purpose: to advance NOUS-209, the company's lead candidate, an experimental cancer immunotherapy intended for carriers of Lynch syndrome. It is neither an approved treatment nor an available product, but a molecule still in clinical development.

A Series D led by M Ventures and Revelation Partners

The round is co-led by M Ventures and Revelation Partners. Several new investors are joining the shareholder base:

  • Angelini Industries, via Angelini Investments;
  • the European Investment Bank, via Aurea, its co-investment facility with Angelini Ventures;
  • Neva SGR, part of the Intesa Sanpaolo group.

All existing investors followed: 5AM Ventures, Andera Partners, Angelini Ventures, Bpifrance (via its InnoBio2 fund), CDP Venture Capital (via its Large Ventures Fund), EQT Life Sciences, Indaco Venture Partners, Panakes Partners, Versant Ventures and XGEN Ventures. The press release does not detail how the 135 million is split between these players, nor the company's valuation.

The Angelini case illustrates how such a round is put together: the industrial group has been following Nouscom since the Series C through its Angelini Ventures arm, which also took part in this Series D, before now coming in directly with Angelini Industries. Its CEO, Sergio Marullo di Condojanni, says he sees “significant potential” in Nouscom's approach to cancer prevention in Lynch syndrome.

Lynch syndrome, a high hereditary risk

Lynch syndrome is a common hereditary condition that markedly increases the lifetime risk of developing cancer. According to the figures cited in the press release, this risk reaches up to 50% for colorectal cancer (compared with 2% in the general population), up to 50% for endometrial cancer (compared with 1 to 2%) and up to 25% for urothelial cancer (compared with 1 to 2%).

Marina Udier, CEO of Nouscom, sums up the stakes as the company sees them: “More than two million Lynch syndrome carriers live with a lifetime cancer risk of up to 80%, and nothing else to offer them but surveillance and surgery.” Nouscom's strategy targets what it calls cancer interception: acting before the tumour develops.

NOUS-209: where the clinical trial really stands

NOUS-209 is a so-called “off-the-shelf” immunotherapy that targets tumours with mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR) and microsatellite instability (MSI). These tumours carry particular markers, neoantigens derived from frameshift peptides, which are present in cancer cells and absent from healthy cells. The product combines two proprietary viral vectors that deliver 209 of these shared neoantigens, in order to train the immune system to recognise cancerous and precancerous cells.

What is established, according to the press release: phase 1b/2 data have shown the safety of NOUS-209 and its ability to stimulate strong immune responses in Lynch syndrome carriers. The results of the completed phase 1b have been published in Science Translational Medicine.

What is still only a signal: the abstract published by ESMO, ahead of a presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology congress by principal investigator Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez, indicates that all treated evaluable carriers remained free of advanced adenomas and colorectal cancer at colonoscopy after one year (43 people) and after two years (17 people). The company sees this as an “encouraging signal” of durable clinical activity, consistent with a treatment effect relative to the expected incidence. These numbers remain small, and formal proof of efficacy must still come through a registrational trial.

What the Swiss startup will fund

The proceeds of the Series D are to fund a single, global registrational clinical trial of NOUS-209 in cancer interception in Lynch syndrome carriers. The US FDA has granted the programme Fast Track designation. The press release specifies neither the timetable for this trial, nor the planned number of participants, nor the countries involved.

In parallel, NOUS-209 is being studied in phase 2 in combination with pembrolizumab in two settings: in patients with dMMR and/or MSI-H metastatic colorectal cancer that has become refractory to anti-PD-1 treatments, and as first-line treatment of this same type of advanced cancer.

How significant is it for Swiss biotech in 2026?

The source does not place this round in relation to other Swiss biotech financings this year and provides no ranking. We will therefore stick to the facts: a Basel-based company raises 135 million dollars from a largely European syndicate, with a view to a registrational trial. For Hakan Goker, head of biotech investments at M Ventures, the combination of maturing clinical data and an aligned regulatory path towards such a trial is “rare” for a private biotech. Other companies in the sector are also moving their programmes forward, as seen with the clinical milestones reached by Muvon, Neurosterix and Nuclidium.

For Nouscom, what comes next will depend less on fundraising than on the upcoming trial: it is the trial that will show whether the signal observed in a few dozen carriers holds up on a larger scale.

Sources

  • Startupticker.ch: “Nouscom raises $135 Million to advance its cancer immunotherapy”