Biotech
Inside the Dutch Biotech Pipeline: 4 Startups Taking New Routes to Therapy
DealBio tracks early-stage biotech startups across Europe and North America. These 4 Dutch startups are taking distinct routes to therapy across cancer and immune-mediated disease.
- Netherlands
- Therapeutics
- Immunology
- Oncology
- Cell Therapy
The Netherlands has a dense translational life-science environment, but the more useful investment question at seed stage is whether that scientific infrastructure is producing assets that can move toward the clinic. Protected mechanisms, reproducible disease models, development-ready programs and teams that understand manufacturing and regulation matter more than ecosystem density on its own.
Across this group, therapeutic differentiation comes from changing what is targeted or how selectively the intervention acts. That matters because early biotech rarely lacks interesting biology; the harder step is converting that biology into evidence strong enough to justify the next, more expensive stage of development.
At a Glance
- LumoxNetherlands2025Light-activated targeted cancer therapy
- AviSia TherapeuticsNetherlands2024Antigen-specific immune tolerance
- Circle BioNetherlands2025Personalized CAR-T for solid tumors
- BactheravaxNetherlands2025Vaccines against tumor-associated bacteria
01
Lumox
Developing a light-activated cancer therapy designed to spare healthy tissue.
- Country
Netherlands- Founded
- 2025
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Lumox stands out
Lumox has secured more than €4.5 million from KWF for a planned first patient study in head and neck cancer and holds an exclusive license to two Utrecht University patents. The platform has also crossed an unusual translational step: it has been used in veterinary practice in cats with oral cancer, with tumor eradication in multiple treated patients and no treatment-related side effects.
Additional support includes €200,000 from Biotech Booster, while Lumox won the 2026 Netherlands Startup Competition after earlier recognition at the Philips Innovation Award.
What Lumox is building
Lumox is developing Selective PhotoTherapy, which links an EGFR-targeting nanobody to a light-activated drug. The therapeutic is designed to accumulate in tumor cells and become active only where red light is applied.
That combination adds spatial control to molecular targeting. Instead of exposing the whole body to the active payload, Lumox aims to concentrate treatment at the illuminated tumor site while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
Developing antigen-specific immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes.
- Country
- Netherlands
- Founded
- 2024
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
- Founders
Why AviSia Therapeutics stands out
AviSia Therapeutics has secured a €350,000 convertible loan to advance AVS-006 and reports three feasibility experiments supporting the program’s mechanism. Founder Henk Viëtor previously co-founded Skyline Diagnostics and helped take that business through a Series A, bringing repeat biotech company-building experience to the new venture.
The startup is also building on peer-reviewed glyco-immunology research showing how sialylated antigens can promote antigen-specific immune tolerance.
What AviSia Therapeutics is building
AVS-006 links proinsulin to an inhibitory glycan designed to retrain the immune system to tolerate beta-cell antigens. The goal is to interrupt the autoimmune response behind type 1 diabetes without broadly suppressing immunity.
Because the platform pairs a disease-driving antigen with the tolerance signal, AviSia Therapeutics sees a route to adapting the same design to other autoimmune diseases.
Developing personalised immune-cell therapies for solid tumours.
- Country
- Netherlands
- Founded
- 2025
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
- Founders
Why Circle Bio stands out
Circle Bio is led by repeat cell-therapy founders Maarten Zandvliet and Tol Trimborn. They previously co-founded CellPoint, which Galapagos acquired in 2022 for €125 million upfront plus up to €100 million in milestones.
Before that acquisition, the founders helped advance two decentralized CAR-T programs into Phase 1/2a development. That gives Circle Bio direct operating experience across cell-therapy development, manufacturing and clinical translation.
What Circle Bio is building
Circle Bio is developing personalized autologous CAR-T therapies for solid tumors. Its approach combines tumor diagnostics, target selection and an individualized treatment workflow around cancer-driving targets intended to be shared across tumor cells.
The strategy is designed to reduce tumor escape by matching the CAR-T therapy to the patient’s cancer while focusing on targets that may be present more broadly across the tumor.
Developing vaccines against tumor-associated bacteria to improve cancer treatment.
- Country
- Netherlands
- Founded
- 2025
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
- Founders
Why Bactheravax stands out
Bactheravax secured €350,000 from UNIIQ in 2026 to advance its first therapeutic vaccine program. Co-founder Dinja Oosterhoff previously led a vaccine program into Phase 1 at Intravacc, while CEO Ivo Ploemen has negotiated licensing transactions with aggregate deal values above \$100 million.
The startup also works with researchers at Leiden University Medical Center and Amsterdam UMC, connecting its vaccine development to specialist microbiology and oncology expertise.
What Bactheravax is building
Bactheravax is developing therapeutic vaccines against bacteria found inside or around tumors. Its lead program targets Fusobacterium nucleatum in colorectal cancer, a bacterium associated with an immune-suppressive tumor environment.
By training the immune system to recognize the bacterial target, the startup aims to reduce one source of tumor immune suppression and improve how patients respond to existing cancer treatments.
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Investment perspective
For investors, the useful signal is how quickly a novel mechanism can be converted into translational evidence. New targets can create differentiation, but they also create a proof burden: the startup has to show not only that the biology is interesting, but that the intervention reaches the right target, produces a measurable effect and can be developed within a practical clinical pathway.
That makes upcoming de-risking milestones especially important. Programs with clear readouts — whether in tumor response, immune-tolerance markers, cell-therapy performance or vaccine-induced biological change — can create meaningful financing inflection points before full clinical efficacy is known. The strongest early-stage cases are the ones where mechanism, development plan and measurable proof advance together.
Methodology
DealBio selected these startups from its database of early-stage health and longevity startups, focusing on Netherlands-based biotech startups developing therapeutic products through materially different biological mechanisms. The selection spans targeted oncology, immune tolerance, cell therapy and tumor-microbiome vaccines.
DealBio builds its Startup Briefs using publicly available company materials, ecosystem sources, market references and professional profiles.