Built with the best in class.
Portal Innovations invests in biotech and medtech startups from seed to Series A. We work with life sciences founders in each of our ecosystems to help them grow by providing physical, human, and financial capital.
ARase Therapeutics
Geography: Boston
Indication: HRD-high tumors in breast, ovarian, pancreatic, lung, and prostate cancers
Stage: Pre-clinical
CEO and Founder: Paul Chang
Arase is dedicated to developing first-in-class therapeutics targeting ADP-ribose Hydrolases, focusing on novel pathways in proven cancer stress pathways.
Small molecules targeting ADP-ribose hydrolase for tumors
Cardiosense
Geography: Chicago
Indication: Congestive heart failure
Stage: Clinical
University Spinout: Georgia Tech University, Northwestern University
CEO and Founder: Amit Gupta
Cardiosense is building a digital biomarker platform that leverages novel, multi-sensor devices and proprietary algorithms to detect early signs of disease and guide personalized therapy.
Heart monitoring A.I. device
ClostraBio
Geography: Chicago
Indication: Lower gut issues
University Spinout: University of Chicago
CEO: Ritu Shah
ClostraBio is dedicated to creating new therapeutics to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and food allergy.
Polymer platform for gut diseases
CrossBridge Bio
Geography: Houston
Indication: Oncology
Stage: Pre-clinical
University Spinout: UT Health
CEO and Founder: Michael Torres
With a comprehensive and versatile approach, CrossBridge Bio's technology platform stands as a beacon in the realm of cancer therapeutics. It offers a promising pathway to optimize multiple critical factors, ensuring the creation of safe and effective ADCs that can revolutionize cancer treatment.
ADC technology for individual drug concentration
Dimension Inx.
Geography: Chicago
Indication: Bone grafts, soft tissue repair, cell therapy delivery
Stage: Commercial
University Spinout: Northwestern University
CEO and Founder: Caralynn Nowinski
Dimension Inx. designs and develops therapeutic products that restore tissue and organ function. Their biomaterials and manufacturing process enables unparalleled design versatility and a nuanced microarchitecture that drives biofunctionality.
3D printing therapeutics for organs
Grove Biopharma
Geography: Chicago
Indication: Oncology, Parkinson's
Stage: Pre-clinical
University Spinout: Northwestern University
CEO and Founder: Geoffrey Duyk
A revolutionary platform biotech company, Grove Biopharma operates at the intersection of materials science and medicinal chemistry. Based on the work from the lab of Northwestern University Professor Nathan Gianneschi, Grove focuses on the discovery and development of a new class of biotherapeutics to treat significant unmet medical needs in chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.
Therapeutic targeting of protein-protein interactions
Iterion Therapeutics
Geography: Houston
Indication: Liver cancer, colorectal cancer
Stage: Clinical
University Spinout: University of Utah, Huntsman Cancer Institute
CEO: Rahul Aras
Iterion Therapeutics is a clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company dedicated to revolutionizing healthcare through novel drug discovery and innovation.
Small molecule inhibitor of Transducin Beta-like Protein 1
March Biosciences
Geography: Houston
Indication: T-cell lymphoma, T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Stage: Clinical
University Spinout: Baylor College of Medicine
CEO and Founder: Sarah Hein
March is a clinical-stage cell therapy company. March’s lead asset is a CAR-T therapy against CD5 at the end of Phase I trials for T-cell malignancies, diseases with a dismal prognosis that is currently unaddressed by CAR-T and targeted therapy technologies. The therapy has produced complete responses in highly relapsed/refractory patients, while avoiding the fratricide during expansion and severe immunodepletion that have limited development of therapies for these indications.
CAR-T cell therapies for hematological cancers
Moonlight Therapeutics
Geography: Atlanta
Indication: Peanut allergy
Stage: Pre-clinical
University Spinout: Texas Tech
CEO and Founder: Samir Patel
Moonlight is developing a microneedle-based immunotherapy for peanut allergies.
Peanut allergy immunotherapy
Pelagos Pharmaceuticals
Geography: Houston
Indication: Obesity, Heart failure
Stage: Pre-clinical
University Spinout: University of Florida, University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis
CEO: Dan Watkins
Pelagos is developing drugs that activate the metabolic and mitochrondrial pathways seen in acute aerobic exercise.
Oral drug to prevent diseases of aging
ReAx Biotechnologies
Geography: Chicago
Indication: Oncology, Immunology
Stage: Pre-clinical
University Spinout: University of Chicago
CEO and Founder: Ray Moellering
ReAx is a Chicago-based, pre-clinical company that is applying next generation chemical proteomic platforms to discover, optimize and validate small molecules directly in cells.
Chemoproteomics drug discovery
Rhaeos
Geography: Chicago
Indication: Hydrocephalus
Stage: Clinical
University Spinout: Northwestern University
CEO: Anna Lisa Somera
Arising from a collaboration between materials scientists and neurological surgeons at Northwestern University, Rhaeos has developed a noninvasive thermal sensor for use in the monitoring of ventricular shunt function. In this manner, they hope to eradicate the uncertainty faced by patients, families and healthcare providers alike.
Non-invasive thermal sensors to monitor fluid flow
RNAv8
Geography: Boston
Indication: Any
Stage: Pre-clinical
CEO and Founder: Devan Shah
To reduce human suffering at scale, RNAv8 aims to radically expand the use of mRNA to treat disease by enabling 1000+ new therapies
Screening platform and RNA logic gates
Synaptrix
Geography: Atlanta
Indication: Pain management
Stage: Clinical
University Spinout: Avanos Medical
CEO: Shyamy Sastry
Synaptrix’s NOVABLOC is a procedure-based solution that delivers a novel type of electrical stimulation to relieve pain for 20+ days.
Electrical stimulation for pain relief
Syntax Bio
Geography: Chicago
Indication: Diabetes, heme malignancies, arthritis, muscular dystrophies
Stage: Pre-clinical
University Spinout: University of Illinois at Chicago
CEO: John Craighed
CRISPR system that enables the manufacture of any therapeutic human cell type from stem cells via sequential, automatic genetic instruction sets.
Stem cell-derived therapies
Syntis Bio
Geography: Boston
Indication: Obesity, drug delivery
Stage: Clinical
University Spinout: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CEO and Founder: Rahul Dhanda
Syntis Bio is a late-stage, preclinical company developing a new class of therapy. Through novel formulations, Syntis creates both simple oral therapies and treatments that target specific issues. Their platform offers better outcomes through few doses, increased bioavailability and higher efficacy to manager conditions affecting hundreds of millions of patients all over the world.
Oral therapies for obesity
Vincere Biosciences
Geography: Boston
Indication: Parkinson's Disease and acute kidney injury
Stage: Pre-clinical
CEO: Spring Behrouz
Vincere is creating mitochondrial drugs for Parkinson's disease and acute kidney injury.
Mitochondrial drugs for Parkinson’s disease
Vivtex
Geography: Boston
Indication: Any
University Spinout: MIT & Harvard University
CEO: Maureen Deehan
Vivtex is developing data-driven solutions to overcome the biggest challenges in oral drug delivery. Its proprietary GI-ORIS platform enables high-throughput screening of drug formulations using porcine gut tissue in a patented microplate format, accurately predicting human absorption. Combined with in silico AI modeling and in-house prototyping, Vivtex can rapidly design and fabricate orally bioavailable formulations for biologics and small molecules, enabling the transition from injection to oral delivery. The platform is commercially active, with top pharma customers and multiple revenue-generating partnerships.
Screening platform enabling reformulation of injectable biologics to
Spark and LINK
Portal Innovations has two strategic investment vehicles to support member companies: Spark and LINK.
Spark investments are early-stage, strategic investments made by Portal in founders with breakthrough science and strong potential—often at the pre-seed stage. These investments aim to catalyze momentum.
LINK investments are in-kind investments that convert a portion of a company’s membership fees into equity, enabling access to Portal’s premium lab space, resources, and network. These investments are reserved for companies with compelling science and the potential for meaningful impact while helping them conserve cash and focus on growth.
Alnair Therapeutics
Geography: Chicago
Alnair is a preclinical stage, platform precision oncology company focused on new methods to treat difficult-to-treat cancers. We developed a first-in-class drug delivery technology that leverages the unique features of cancer metabolism to enhance targeting and penetration of drugs directly to cancer cells, and to improve treatment outcomes for patients.
CiRC Biosciences
Geography: Chicago
CiRC is a privately held, cell therapy company, developing treatments for serious diseases with high, unmet needs with an initial focus on the eye. Founded in 2019, CiRC is in pre-clinical development for the use of chemically induced retinal cells for vision restoration and specifically pursuing a treatment for Geographic Atrophy Age-Related Macular Degeneration (“Dry AMD”) and advanced Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP).
Inomagen Therapeutics
Geography: Chicago
Inomagen Therapeutics is a private, preclinical stage biotechnology company developing a biological (gene) therapy to improve the treatment of atrial fibrillation.
Zylem Biosciences
Geography: Chicago
Zylem Biosciences is a startup biotechnology company developing targeted medicines based on its novel platform technology: A surface chemical mimic of natural high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Zylem has developed a deep pipeline of therapies applicable to diseases and conditions where lipid dysfunction plays a critical role.
cTRL Therapeutics
Venture
cTRL is harnessing the power of cTRLs – a rare and potent circulating T cell population found in the blood and naturally equipped to fight cancer – to engineer solid tumor cell therapies.
Novascan
Geography: Chicago
NovaScan’s leadership believes that improving the detection and stratification of cancer – be it in initial detection of cancer, during a procedure, or in post-procedural pathology – can improve patient outcomes, increase physician economics, and reduce the cost of care. Novascan is committed to commercializing our platform technology for cancer detection and stratification, which we believe offers significant advantages over alternatives in soft tissue cancer detection.
We are honored to have Walder Ventures as the founding sponsor of Portal Innovations. Our organizations share a bold vision to accelerate ambitious thinking in biomedical innovation and create a thriving ecosystem to support life science entrepreneurs.
Inspired by Joseph Walder’s lifelong passion for scientific discovery, Walder’s support helps us provide capital, infrastructure, and expertise to high-potential startups developing breakthrough products to help patients.
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