Stockholm’s BioLamina secures €20 million EIB loan to scale cell therapies for chronic diseases

BioLamina, a Stockholm-based BioTech scale-up specialising in matrix biology and cell culture, has secured a €20 million financing commitment from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to enable cell therapies for serious chronic diseases. 

The EIB loan is structured as venture debt, a form of long-term financing aimed at innovative, rapidly expanding companies. It complements venture capital and other equity investments while minimising immediate dilution for current shareholders. The EIB utilises venture debt to support companies in scaling their operations and extending their funding period.

“Europe needs to turn scientific excellence into global companies. By supporting BioLamina’s growth, we are helping ensure that cutting-edge innovation in life sciences can scale in Europe, creating jobs, strengthening competitiveness and ultimately improving public health,” said EIB Vice-President Karl Nehammer.

BioLamina was founded in 2009 by the father-son team of Dr Karl Tryggvason and Kristian Tryggvason. It aims to assist scientists facing challenges in cultivating pluripotent stem cells and other primary cells in the lab.

The company develops and manufactures laminin-based cell culture substrates that enable the reliable growth and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells and other primary cells. Laminins help to grow and maintain cells in laboratory environments. 

These proteins were created based on research by the company’s founders and serve as a foundation for healthy cell growth. They support the production of consistent, high-quality cells essential for emerging cell therapies and dependable drug testing.

Laminins are vital extracellular matrix proteins that surround cells in the body. “They are a large family of conserved, multidomain glycoproteins (at least 16 isoforms in mammals) that form part of the extracellular matrix. They are a major component of the basal lamina, the protein network supporting most cells and tissues. Laminins are critical for tissue function and survival, and many isoforms show distinct cell-type specificity. Without the right laminin combination, cells and tissues become dysfunctional,” explained BioLamina. 

BioLamina claims to offer well-defined, high-quality, and scalable cell culture solutions to assist researchers and developers in advancing cell therapies and enhancing the precision of cell-based models in drug discovery and development.

EIB is providing this loan to BioLamina to expand its development of laminin technologies, enabling next-generation cell therapies and more advanced, animal-free methods for drug safety testing. 

Cell therapies can be used to target conditions such as type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, heart failure, acute liver failure and cancer. Many of these conditions remain difficult to treat or are incurable.

The company plans to use this funding to expand and scale up production of its laminins. The financing will help the company to optimise its manufacturing processes, expand its product portfolio, reinforce its technological base and bolster business growth. 

“Cell therapies are rapidly moving from scientific promise to clinical reality, but scaling the production of high-quality cell products remains a fundamental challenge. This financing allows us to expand our technology and manufacturing capabilities at a critical time, supporting more reliable and scalable development of next-generation therapies,” said BioLamina CEO Klaus Langhoff-Roos.

The company’s Biolaminin® substrates are full-length, chemically defined and animal origin-free human recombinant laminins, designed for controlled cell culture systems and used in cell therapy development, including phase I–III clinical trials across major regulatory jurisdictions.

The operation advances the InvestEU goal of fostering research, development, and innovation throughout Europe. Additionally, it also supports the EIB Group’s TechEU programme and wider EU initiatives like BioTechEU, which aim to boost Europe’s competitiveness in biotechnology and life sciences.

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