Telum Therapeutics has raised €18m in Series A funding to advance its lead programme targeting hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia.
The financing round was led by AMR Action Fund, with participation from new investor Inveready and continued support from existing investors Invivo Partners, CDTI through its SICC Innvierte programme, Clave Capital and Sodena.
Dr Subhendu Basu, chief executive officer of Telum Therapeutics, said: “We are delighted to welcome AMR Action Fund and Inveready as new investors in Telum.
“AMR Action Fund’s dedicated focus and deep expertise in antimicrobial resistance, together with the continued support of Invivo Partners, Clave Capital, CDTI-Innvierte and Sodena, reinforces our confidence in the potential of the APEX platform to generate a new class of antimicrobial therapies for difficult-to-treat infections.”
The announcement follows several sizeable European biotechnology and drug discovery financing rounds during 2026.
Bavaria-based mbiomics raised a total of €30m in Series A funding to scale microbiome therapeutics for chronic and severe diseases.
Paris-based biotechnology start-up Generare, which generates molecular data for drug development, closed a €20m Series A round to expand its microbial genome-based drug discovery platform.
London-based Helical, a virtual AI laboratory for pharmaceutical research and development, raised €8.4m in seed financing for AI infrastructure.
Barcelona-based Gate2Brain closed a €7m round to advance its brain tumour candidate and blood-brain barrier drug delivery platform.
Finland’s Avenue Biosciences, a protein engineering technology company, announced a €4.8m seed extension in January to scale its technology for therapeutic and biotechnology applications.
Together, Telum and the five comparable rounds represent about €88.2m in disclosed funding for European biotechnology, therapeutic platform and drug discovery companies during 2026. Gate2Brain provides a same-country comparison in Spain.
Telum, founded in 2019, has developed a lead programme targeting severe infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii, a multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogen associated with significant illness and death among hospital patients worldwide.
Basu said: “This financing provides a clear path to complete Phase 1 development of our lead programme targeting Acinetobacter baumannii HABP/VABP, while also enabling us to advance our broader pipeline addressing both Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens.”
The investment from AMR Action Fund will allow Telum to advance its lead candidate through Phase 1 clinical development, generating safety and translational data to support later stages of clinical evaluation.
Dr Henry Skinner, chief executive officer of the AMR Action Fund, said: “Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most formidable bacterial threats in modern medicine. It is clinically challenging, often resistant to first-line therapies, and a pathogen for which progress has been slow and difficult to achieve.
“We are encouraged by Telum’s novel approach and pleased to support the team as they work to bring forward a new treatment option for patients with life-threatening infections.”
