Buffalo startup Immunaeon is raising funds, as it scales to meet demand and aims to further build its network to add more customers.
The business, based at 701 Ellicott St., Buffalo, has raised a seed round of about $600,000. CEO and co-founder Adam Utley expects to close the round by the end of spring with a total of around $850,000.
Immunaeon, the first graduate of the UB Cultivator program, stores a person’s healthy immune cells through blood draws for the future when they’re needed. The service can help individuals, especially those who are genetically disposed to certain illnesses or newly diagnosed patients, and benefit the pharmaceutical industry, where drug development often requires healthy cells.
The startup got $250,000 of its seed round from UB’s Buffalo Innovation Seed Fund and raised the rest through Buffalo- and New York state-based investments.
“We have UB to thank as well as the larger startup community in Buffalo as a whole,” Utley said.
Immunaeon has over 100 people signed up for the service currently, and Utley wants to expand to 500 patients by the end of this year.
The long-term, 10-year goal is to have between 400,000 and 500,000 customers serviced.
The business aims to do that, with the help of the seed round, through strategic partnerships and broadening its physician network to expand its customer base.
The company finalized earlier this year an agreement with Blood Centers of America, which allows Immunaeon to send its customers to any of their about 500 locations nationwide to draw blood. Their healthy cells are then sent to Buffalo, where they are processed and stored.
The startup is also working on a strategic partnership with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and is designing a clinical trial with Roswell to isolate and store all of the immune cells from newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients.
“We’re really using this initial set of funds to make sure we’re well prepared to strategically work entities like Roswell as well as expand our current customer base,” Utley said.
Reaching patients through physicians has been a cost effective, successful strategy for the startup. The team has been able to build on its existing relationships in the medical field, as well as educating other physicians within the Buffalo-area and other markets around the country to “build that referral network to have a steady stream of customers,” he added.
Immunaeon is the second local company to acknowledge a private, growth-oriented round of funding this year. The list includes Azuna ($486,000) and Immunaeon ($600,000).
