Nordic Star Pitch Competition 2

AAX Biotech

Sweden

We bring science to life. Our vision is to establish AAX as a leading, highly competitive partner serving the bio pharma industry worldwide by being the superior choice for antibody development.

AAX Biotech AB is a research-driven biotech company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with proprietary technologies that solve unmet needs in the development of next-generation antibody therapeutics.

We offer a unique solution to a recognized problem in a rapidly growing market. Our two unique and patentable technologies improve the performance and developability of antibody-based therapeutics.

Anyo Labs

Sweden

Anyo Labs is a Swedish AI drug discovery company founded in 2022 and headquartered in Gothenburg. We have built and patented a platform that finds drug candidates faster, at lower cost, and with higher accuracy than conventional methods — validated across over 10 targets in commercial projects, highly accurate with highest hit rate in the open 2025 CACHE Challenge #6, and published in peer-reviewed literature.

The company was founded by Prof. Leif A. Eriksson (top 2% global researcher, 350+ publications, University of Gothenburg), Dr. Sayyed Jalil Mahdizadeh (inventor of the core platform), and Marek Szczygiel MD (CEO). The team includes senior medicinal chemistry expertise from AstraZeneca and Galecto Biotech, and advisors from Novo Nordisk.

We operate a cash-flow positive service business while advancing an internal pipeline anchored by an NLRP3 inhibitor program. We are raising €7M to fund three programs to in vivo proof-of-concept within 24 months, targeting an exit through acquisition within five years.

Countagen

Sweden

Countagen AB is a Swedish biotech company providing genomic safety validation tools for cell and gene therapy (CGT) programs. Our platform, LockSeq, uses proprietary Molecular Lock Chemistry to enable accurate, scalable, and cost-effective detection of on- and off-target gene edits across 1,000+ genomic sites simultaneously. We offer an end-to-end service (DNA-In, Report-Out) and are transitioning to decentralised reagent kits. Founded in Dec 2020 in Solna, Sweden, by PhD scientists from the Cartana and 10X Genomics ecosystem, Countagen is backed by a strong IP portfolio and has delivered services to customers including Novo Nordisk and Karolinska Institutet.

Gleipnir Bioforge

Iceland

Gleipnir Bioforge is an Icelandic biotech spin-out from the University of Iceland School of Health Sciences specializing in early-stage drug discovery and induced proximity biology. Founded by Dr. Gudjon Ólafsson and Henny Adolfsdottir, the company operates via a dual business model: acting as a premium discovery CRO providing high-throughput screening data to global biopharma partners, while simultaneously functioning as an internal “IP Factory” that discovers and patents proprietary, validated protein-pair combinations against historically intractable diseases. Gleipnir Bioforge bridges microbial synthetic biology with advanced automated screening and downstream mammalian validation to systematically turn the “undruggable” into the druggable.

Hazel Therapeutics

Denmark

Hazel Therapeutics is a Danish biotechnology company developing disease-modifying RNA therapies for osteoarthritis. The company was founded based on technology developed at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and combines expertise in oligonucleotide therapeutics, biomaterials, drug delivery, and musculoskeletal disease.

Leading up to incorporation, the team behind Hazel secured more than €0.7 million in non-dilutive funding and established a strong intellectual property position around the BioMATA delivery platform and its therapeutic applications. The technology has been validated through extensive preclinical studies and supported by collaborations with leading academic and clinical partners in Europe.

Two months after incorporation, Hazel secured a €0.4 million pre-seed investment through the DTU SkyLab Accelerator program. The company is now advancing its lead program, hz201, a dual-ASO therapy for osteoarthritis, while expanding the broader BioMATA platform for localized RNA delivery.

Hazel’s mission is to develop disease-modifying therapies that address the underlying biology of osteoarthritis rather than simply managing symptoms.

Loma Therapeutics

Denmark

LOMA was born out of a collaborative research project funded by Eurostars (THERIN). The project’s innovative outcome was the invention of a novel immunotherapy with more full-length HPV DNA than possible before. On the basis of the THERIN project, where our CEO Ditte Boilesen was the main researcher, LOMA was founded in August 2023. The three representatives of the THERIN project partners are LOMA’s co-founders and are positioned as scientific advisors in the company, involved in both scientific decisions and the board of directors. LOMA was incubating at the BioInnovation Institute (BII) in Denmark, first in the Venture Lab program and later in the Venture House program, where we have now graduated. At BII, LOMA benefited not only from funds but also from extensive mentorship and access to all required facilities, including offices and labs.

The operational team consists of CEO/CSO Ditte Boilesen, PhD (full-time), COO Stephanie Holstein-Rønsbo, PhD (full-time), CBO Lasse Nørregaard, MSc, MBA (40%), Senior Scientist Martin Bardenfleth, PhD (full-time), Business Developer Caroline de Blanck, MSc (full-time), CMC manager Gaurav Gupta, PhD (40%), and Mathilde Dam Sørensen, MSc (full-time). Supporting the team, LOMA has external scientific advisors and an established board of directors with complementary expertise from the biotech industry.

MedicubeX

Finland

MedicubeX is a Finnish health technology startup that specializes in healthcare automation and telehealth solutions. The company is best known for developing the eHealth Station, an autonomous, private self-service kiosk that allows individuals to conduct a comprehensive health check-up unassisted in about five minutes. The station automatically measures vital signs like blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and body composition, while also conducting basic ECGs and assessing risks for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Designed to alleviate nursing shortages, these booths feature integrated remote doctor consultations and automatic UV disinfection, and they are deployed across primary care clinics, hospitals and occupational health facilities.