Biotech startup Helex raises $3.5 Mn in seed round led by pi Ventures

Biotechnology startup Helex has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by pi Ventures.

The round also saw participation from a host of investors, including Bluehill.VC, US-based SOSV, among others. 

The funding will boost preclinical development of Helex’s lead drug candidate for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) — a genetic disorder impacting around 12 million people worldwide and nearly 5% of India’s chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients.

This round brings Helex’s total funding to over $6 million.

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“By solving for kidney-targeted delivery, Helex opens the door to a new class of targeted, curative medicines for millions of patients who currently have no effective treatment options,” the startup said in a statement.

Chaudhuri, CEO of Helex, said, “For far too long, patients with ADPKD have had to rely only on symptom management. By enabling targeted delivery of genomic medicines directly to the kidney, we are developing a transformative therapy that is accessible and affordable for every patient who needs it.”

Roopan Aulakh, managing partner at pi Ventures, said, “ADPKD represents a significant unmet medical need. Gene therapies are emerging as one of the most promising frontiers in medicine. Helex’s mechanism has the potential to be a curative therapy and positions the company to build a differentiated pipeline of therapies for kidney diseases.”

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About Helex

Founded in 2021 by Poulami Chaudhuri, Anirudh Nishtala and Rohini Kalvakuntla, Helex is a therapeutics company developing a new generation of targeted medicines for genetic kidney diseases using its proprietary LNP drug delivery and AI-driven drug design platforms.

Incubated at ASPIRE-BioNEST, University of Hyderabad, the company aims to revolutionize treatment for chronic and rare kidney disorders by creating programmable, non viral LNP therapeutics capable of delivering genetic payloads directly to kidney cells.

Helex’s platform integrates deep learning models with genomics, bioinformatics, and high-throughput sequencing data from gene-edited cells to design and validate disease-specific gRNAs.

Its lead program focuses on Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) — a progressive genetic disorder that affects over 12 million people globally and nearly 5% of CKD patients in India. Helex aims to transform treatment outcomes with a single-dose, non-viral, gene-editing therapy designed to halt or slow disease progression.

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