HULA Therapeutics Raises $250,000 Investment at PABC’s 10th Annual Entrepreneur Spotlight
Philadelphia-based biotech startup HULA Therapeutics has secured a $250,000 investment at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center’s 10th annual Entrepreneur Spotlight, hosted by Hatch BioFund.
July 23, 2024
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HULA Therapeutics, a promising Philadelphia biotech startup, won the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center’s (PABC) 10th annual Entrepreneur Spotlight, a showcase of inspiring innovation, on July 18. The event, hosted by Hatch BioFund, marked a significant milestone with a $250,000 investment, the company’s first major financial incentive.
Committed to developing safer, more effective treatments for children and adults with solid tumors, HULA Therapeutics dazzled the audience and judges with its groundbreaking work. Leveraging a novel target discovery engine from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, HULA Therapeutics aims to bring a CAR-T cell therapy for neuroblastoma to the clinic by late 2024. The company’s pipeline also includes treatments for sarcoma, medulloblastoma and glioma.
After a close contest, voted on by a panel of four expert judges and nearly 100 attendees, HULA Therapeutics emerged victorious and secured $250,000 in investment from Hatch BioFund, the venture capital arm of PABC.
The other two finalists, selected from a field of more than 40 applicants, were awarded one-year membership and business development opportunities with PABC.
Eliksa Therapeutics: Doylestown-based Eliksa is pioneering secretome-based therapeutics for eye, cardiovascular and osteoarthritis diseases. The company’s lead product, ELK-003, targets the ocular manifestations of epidermolysis bullosa and entered clinical trials in 2024. ThirdLaw Molecular LLC: The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based company is advancing Temple University’s Spiroligomer™ molecule, aiming to revolutionize targeted medicines for safer and more effective disease treatment.
About Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC): Nearly 100 companies are affiliated with PABC. PABC is a nonprofit life science incubator and accelerator that offers a collaborative ecosystem and state-of-the-art labs and office space. Its two locations are home to approximately 70 early-stage biotech companies. In addition to its Doylestown campus, where a new building with labs and offices opened two years ago, PABC operates B+labs at Cira Center in University City, Philadelphia. Launched in 2022, B+labs is a partnership with Brandywine Realty Trust. PABC uses a highly effective, services-based approach to incubate and position member companies to advance biotechnology, maximizing synergies between nonprofit and commercial scientific colleagues to generate new ideas and discoveries. PABC companies account for 17% of all National Institutes of Health SBIR grants awarded in Pennsylvania and have generated billions of dollars in market value from IPOs, acquisitions and commercial valuations over the years.
About Hatch BioFund: Founded in 2023, Hatch BioFund provides early-stage capital to promising life science companies along with access to deep industry expertise and a physical platform to help them realize their mission. Hatch’s partners include Brandywine Realty Trusty, Daiichi Sankyo, The Hepatitis B Foundation, Baruch S. Blumberg Research Institute, PABC and B+labs at Cira Centre.
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