About UCB Ventures
UCB Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2017. It is primarily based out of Brussels, Belgium. As of Jun 2025, UCB Ventures has invested in 13 companies. It primarily invests in Series A round in United States based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Life Sciences to High Tech and Enterprise Applications. Most recently it participated in the $***** Series B round of Splice Bio Overall, UCB Ventures portfolio has seen 3 acquisitions, namely Neurona Therapeutics, EsoBiotec and Syndesi Therapeutics. A lot of funds co-invest with UCB Ventures, with names like Arch Venture Partners sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. UCB Ventures has team of 5 people including 1 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Count
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Series A, Seed & 1 more
Portfolio Acquisitions
Portfolio Soonicorns
Deals in last 12 months
UCB Ventures' List of Top Investments
UCB Ventures has a portfolio of 13 companies. Their most notable investments are in Switch Therapeutics and Ally Therapeutics.Their portfolio spans across United States, Belgium, United Kingdom and 1 more locations. They have invested in Life Sciences, High Tech, Enterprise Applications and 1 other sectors, across stages such as Series A, Seed and 1 more. Here is the list of top investments by UCB Ventures:Developer of cell-based therapies to treat intractable neurological diseases. It generate therapeutic compositions of a specific type of nerve cell (or neuron) for targeted delivery into the injured nervous system. It offers NRTX-1001, an inhibitory neuron therapy for epilepsy by GABAergic inhibition, reduce seizure activity, and repair the affected neural network.
Key facts about Neurona Therapeutics
- Founded Year: 2008
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Last Known Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $418M
- Employee Count: 104 as on Mar 31, 2026
- Investors: Fidelity Investments, Cormorant Asset Management and 15 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series E, Mar 28, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
2. Splice Bio
Provider of a proprietary platform for gene therapy. The company offers proprietary intein platform technology for treating patients suffering from rare genetic diseases. The company's lead program is in Stargardt disease, the most common inherited retinal disorder caused by mutations in a single gene ABCA4.
Key facts about Splice Bio
- Founded Year: 2020
- Location: Barcelona (Spain)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $192M
- Employee Count: 56 as on Mar 31, 2026
- Investors: Sanofi Ventures, Gilde Healthcare and 9 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Jun 11, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Provider of regenerative stem cell-based therapies for the treatment of hearing loss. The company's novel technology is to replace damaged or dead sensory cells of the inner ear with stem cell therapy and restore hearing. The company is inducing differentiation from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) using signals involved in the initial specification of the otic placode.
Key facts about Rinri Therapeutics
- Founded Year: 2018
- Location: Sheffield (United Kingdom)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $15.7M
- Employee Count: 19 as on Mar 31, 2026
- Investors: Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, UCB Ventures and 4 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Apr 20, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
4. EsoBiotec
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Key facts about EsoBiotec
- Founded Year: 2020
- Location: Mont-Saint-Guibert (Belgium)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $2.15M
- Employee Count: 8 as on Mar 31, 2026
- Investors: UCB Ventures, Thuja Capital and 3 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Dec 11, 2023, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
Developer of therapeutics for neurological disorders. It offers CASi (Conditionally Activated siRNA) molecules that activate only in selective cells and allow for expansion into targets by precision RNAi approaches to treat the central nervous system and systemic indications.
Key facts about Switch Therapeutics
- Founded Year: 2020
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $71.9M
- Employee Count: 30 as on Mar 31, 2026
- Investors: Insight Partners, Tullis Health Investors and 13 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Mar 14, 2023, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
UCB Ventures' Year-on-Year Investment Trends
UCB Ventures has invested in 13 companies over the last 8 years, with an average of 1 new investment annually in the last 5 years. In 2025, it made 1 investment. Its most recent first time investment was in ViaNautis and most recent follow-on round was in Splice Bio.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2025 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2024 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2023 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2022 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2021 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
2020 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
2019 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
2018 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
UCB Ventures' Investments by Stage
UCB Ventures has made 8 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $44.7M, 3 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $1.78M and 1 investment in Series C stage with an average round size of $41.5M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Series A | 8 |
Seed | 3 |
Series C | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
UCB Ventures' Investments by Sector
UCB Ventures has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Life Sciences, High Tech, Sustainability Tech, Enterprise Applications and HealthTech. Notably, it has invested in 13 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 13 Tech companies and 1 Software company.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Life Sciences | 11 |
High Tech | 4 |
Sustainability Tech | 2 |
Enterprise Applications | 1 |
HealthTech | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
UCB Ventures' Investments by Geography
UCB Ventures has made most investments in United States (7), followed by Belgium where it has made 2 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
United States | 7 |
Belgium | 2 |
United Kingdom | 2 |
Spain | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
UCB Ventures' recent investments
UCB Ventures has not made any investment in 2026 so far.Here are the most recent investments by UCB Ventures:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 11, 2025 | Spain | Series B | 6877 | [+7] | |
Feb 06, 2024 | United States | Series E | 7309 | [+10] | |
Nov 13, 2023 | United Kingdom | Series A | 6597 | [+6] | |
Mar 14, 2023 | United States | Series A | 8172 | [+9] | |
Jun 07, 2022 | United States | Series A | 6814 | [+8] |
Acquired companies in UCB Ventures' Portfolio
3 companies from UCB Ventures' portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Neurona Therapeutics in Apr 2026 by UCB for $*****.Here are UCB Ventures' portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Apr 21, 2026 | Jun 22, 2021 | Series C | 1932 | |
Mar 17, 2025 | 2021 | Seed | 1226 | |
Mar 01, 2022 | - | - | 7025 |
Team profile of UCB Ventures
UCB Ventures has a team of 5 members including 1 Partner and 1 Principal located in United States and Belgium. UCB Ventures' team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Co-investors of UCB Ventures
Over the past 8 years, 94 investors have co-invested in UCB Ventures's portfolio companies. This includes only funds.
- Invested before UCB Ventures: The Column Group, Ysios Capital and 13 others have invested in rounds before UCB Ventures. There is 1 company where The Column Group has invested before UCB Ventures and 1 company where Ysios Capital has invested before UCB Ventures.
- Top Co-investors of UCB Ventures: 44 investors entered a company along with UCB Ventures. These include investors like Arch Venture Partners (3 companies).
- Invested after UCB Ventures: A total of 35 investors have invested in UCB Ventures's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Viking Global Investors (1 company), Cormorant Asset Management (1 company) and Willett Advisors (1 company).
Recent News related to UCB Ventures
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Ysios Capital invests in Neurona Therapeutics' $120 million Series ECapital-Riesgo.es•Feb 09, 2024•Ysios Capital, Neurona Therapeutics, Viking Global Investors, Cormorant Asset Management and 15 others
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ViaNautis Bio Raises $25M in Series A FinancingFinSMEs•Nov 13, 2023•ViaNautis, 4Bio Capital, BGF, UCB Ventures and 6 others
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Switch Therapeutics Launches with $52 Million to Advance First-of-its-Kind RNAi TechnologySwitch Therapeutics•Mar 14, 2023•Switch Therapeutics, Insight Partners, UCB Ventures, Upfront Ventures and 8 others
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ExeVir Bio secures funding for COVID programLabiotech•Jan 09, 2023•ExeVir Bio, UCB Ventures, SFPI, V-Bio Ventures and 7 others
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Code Biotherapeutics Raises $75 Million in Series A FinancingFinSMEs•Jun 08, 2022•Code Biotherapeutics, Northpond Ventures, Amgen, Hatteras Venture Partners and 7 others
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ExeVir Closes US$50M Series A FinancingFinSMEs•May 24, 2021•ExeVir Bio, Fund+, VIB, UCB Ventures and 6 others
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Rinri Therapeutics: Raises £10M in FundingFintechinshorts•Apr 25, 2021•Rinri Therapeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, UCB Ventures, BioCity and 2 others
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Hearing loss specialist raises £10mInsider Media•Apr 21, 2021•Rinri Therapeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, UCB Ventures
