Most drugs work by blocking proteins. They attach to a target and stop it from doing something harmful. The problem is that this approach only works when the target has a convenient pocket to block, and many of the proteins most implicated in cancer and autoimmune disease do not.

They are membrane-bound, structurally awkward, and have been classified as “undruggable” for decades. Laigo Bio, a biotech based in Utrecht, is pursuing a different approach: instead of blocking these proteins, it engineers their destruction.

The company has completed the final close of an oversubscribed €17 million seed round, adding €5.5 million in a second close to the €11.5 million it raised in December 2025. Biovance Capital joins as new co-lead investor alongside existing co-lead Kurma Partners.

The full syndicate now comprises Kurma Partners, Biovance Capital, Curie Capital, Argobio Studio, Angelini Ventures, Eurazeo, Oncode Bridge Fund, ROM Utrecht Region, and Cancer Research Horizons. Dr. João Incio, General Partner at Biovance Capital, joins the Board of Directors as part of the close.

Laigo's platform is called SureTACs, Surface Removal Targeting Chimeras. The technology generates bispecific antibodies engineered to bring a disease-causing membrane protein into direct contact with an E3 ligase enzyme on the cell surface. Once that proximity is forced, the cell's own ubiquitination machinery tags the target protein, which is then shuttled to the lysosome and degraded.

The result is not mere inhibition but elimination: the target protein is physically removed from the cell surface with a degree of selectivity that the company says spares healthy tissue and reduces side effects relative to conventional approaches.

The scientific foundation was developed in Professor Madelon Maurice's laboratory at UMC Utrecht and the Oncode Institute.

The capital will be used to advance Laigo's lead oncology programs through the remaining preclinical studies required before first-in-human trials, and to expand discovery work across three candidate programs targeting autoimmune and immunology indications, including graft rejection.

The company's strategy is to progress its oncology pipeline internally through preclinical completion, at which point it intends to bring in pharmaceutical partners to take those programmes into the clinic. The autoimmune programmes are at an earlier discovery stage.

Laigo was founded by the Oncode Institute, the Oncode Bridge Fund, and Argobio Studio, an international biotech startup studio co-launched by Kurma Partners, BPI France, and Angelini Ventures. Dr Matthew Baker, who was confirmed as CEO in December 2025 after serving as acting CEO, brings more than two decades of drug development experience in inflammation and oncology.

The Utrecht biotech is one of a small number of companies globally working on E3 ligase-mediated degradation of membrane proteins rather than intracellular targets, the territory that established players in targeted protein degradation such as Arvinas and C4 Therapeutics have focused on.

Membrane proteins present harder engineering challenges but represent a large and largely untapped pool of validated disease targets.