ErVimmune Raises €17 Million in Series A First Closing to Enter Clinical Development with Lead Cancer Vaccine Candidate

ErVimmune, a biotechnology company developing next-generation therapeutic vaccines targeting new families of ‘unconventional’ tumor antigens derived from human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), led by Stéphane Depil, Nathalie Donne, and others, has announced the first closing of its Series A financing. The company has raised €17 million ($19.8M) from an international investor syndicate. Existing shareholder Seventure Partners (Paris, France) participated in the fundraising, alongside new investor SPRIM Global Investments (Singapore). This financing will also enable ErVimmune to leverage additional non-dilutive funding from Bpifrance and the France 2030 program. ErVimmune announced the appointment of Eric Halioua as executive chairman of its board of directors, strengthening the company’s governance and strategic leadership as it enters the clinical development stage.

The €17 million Series A will fund the clinical development of ErVac01, ErVimmune’s lead off-the-shelf cancer vaccine candidate. ErVac01 is a heterologous vaccine composed of HERV-derived epitopes designed to achieve broad HLA coverage, exceeding 80% of the population in Asia and 95% in Europe. By targeting antigens shared across patients and tumor types, the vaccine can be manufactured as a ready-to-use product rather than a personalized therapy.

The program is focused on ‘cold’ tumors such as triple-negative breast cancer and ovarian cancer, where responses to checkpoint inhibitors remain limited. The funding will support a first-in-human clinical trial to establish safety and immunogenicity, marking a key step toward validating a scalable cancer vaccine platform.

ErVimmune has been backed since its inception by Bpifrance, ANR, and regional cancer clusters, with Seventure Partners leading its seed round in 2020. The company has since secured multiple public grants, including €2.5 million from the EIC Accelerator in 2023, and was selected for support by the Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster in 2024 and the NETVA program in 2025.

“This financing marks a critical step as ErVimmune advances ErVac01 into the clinic,” said Isabelle de Crémoux of Seventure Partners. Michael Shleifer of SPRIM Global Investments added that the round validates the company’s proprietary antigen discovery platform and opens the door to scalable, off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapies.

The Series A round remains open to additional investors and will further enable the advancement of ErVac01 in triple-negative breast cancer and ovarian cancer, as well as the development of future therapeutic candidates targeting new HERV-derived antigens in additional oncology indications.