Heidelberg-based Exciva, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutic compounds for the treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions, today announces the closing of a €51 million ($59 million) Series B round.
Gimv and EQT Life Sciences co-led the round. Additional participants included new investors Fountain Healthcare Partners, LifeArc Ventures, Carma Fund and Modi Ventures, as well as existing investors Andera Partners and LBBW.
“We are delighted that we could attract funding from both existing and new investors. This confirms that our product is highly promising,” said François Conquet, CEO of Exciva. “If the results of the phase 2 trial are positive, it will be a significant step forward in symptomatic treatment options for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.”
In the European Alzheimer’s and neurodegeneration funding landscape, Exciva’s Series B sits alongside several other notable financings.
Earlier in the year, Augustine Therapeutics, based in Leuven, raised €77.7 million in a Series A to advance brain-penetrant HDAC6 inhibitors for neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s-related indications. In Ireland, Dublin-based Aerska secured €17 million in Seed funding to develop RNA-interference medicines targeting diseases of the brain, with Alzheimer’s among its focus areas.
The UK has also seen activity, with Cambridge-based TRIMTECH Therapeutics raising €28.6 million at Seed stage to work on small-molecule degraders for neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, and London-based Punto Health closing a €2.3 million Seed round to scale an AI-powered platform for dementia care and cognitive decline.
Taken together, these EU-Startups-reported rounds amount to roughly €126 million in disclosed funding directed at Alzheimer’s-related therapeutics and dementia solutions, before including Exciva’s own raise.
Against this backdrop, Exciva’s financing stands out as one of the larger late-stage rounds in the segment, highlighting continued capital deployment into both disease-modifying approaches and treatments addressing neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Exciva’s therapy for agitation in Alzheimer’s disease is highly differentiated, addressing significant shortcomings in the current standard of care and other products under development,” said Andreas Jurgeit, PhD, partner at Gimv. “We are pleased to collaborate with the Exciva team – backed by decades of expertise in neuropsychiatry drug development, including approved therapies – to transform care for this challenging aspect of dementia.”
Exciva is a biopharmaceutical company founded in 2016 by Drs Anton Bespalov, Hans Moebius and Rao Vepachedu to address neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease dementia and other brain disorders. Exciva uses its discovery potential, which has led to the combination of two CNS-active compounds to treat agitation in patients living with Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
The behavioral and psychological symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia can be severe and demanding on caregivers. These include agitation, aggression, sleep disorders, irritability, depression, anxiety and hallucinations. The prevalence of AD, and its associated behavioral and psychological symptoms, is growing in aging societies.
The company says that if nothing is done in the meantime, the global dementia population is projected to grow from ~50 million today to over 150 million by 2050. In conjunction, epidemiological studies have revealed that, on average, about 40% of AD patient admissions reported agitation. It is estimated that more than 70% of people with AD dementia develop agitation at some point during the illness.
As of today, only a few drugs are available to treat these symptoms; many carry significant side effects and boxed warnings, limiting their use.
“This investment illustrates the potential of Exciva to bring an exciting innovation into a therapeutic area where Alzheimer’s patients have limited or no treatment options,” added Philip Scheltens, MD, PhD, partner at EQT Life Sciences. “We are delighted to co-lead this financing to realise Exciva’s potential, which stands out for both the quality of its science and the expertise of the team. We look forward to bringing this new therapy to patients.”
The new proceeds will primarily fund a phase 2 study evaluating Deraphan’s therapeutic potential for treating agitation in patients with AD. Deraphan is the combination of two clinically validated products, including one novel chemical entity (NCE), which have demonstrated activity in the CNS field, with the potential to offer better efficacy and risk/benefit ratio than existing therapies. The clinical trial will be conducted in Europe, the UK, the US and Canada.
A phase 1 trial with Deraphan has been successfully completed and reportedly showed that the combination is safe and well-tolerated.
Following the Series B, the board of directors will be composed of Raphaël Wisniewski (Andera Partners), Philip Scheltens (EQT Life Sciences), Andreas Jurgeit (Gimv), Aidan King (Fountain Healthcare), Vikram Sudarsan (independent Board member) and François Conquet (CEO).
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/01/german-biotech-exciva-lands-e51-million-to-advance-alzheimers-drug-testing-in-patients/
