Two brothers want to revolutionise high-tech drug development with Onyx Biotech and make Germany the pharmacy of the world again
Successful financing round – Life Science Valley Wachstumsfonds, Freiraum Ventures and leading angels invest
15 April 2026 – Onyx Biotech develops best-in-class algorithms and workflows that replace laborious experimental steps in high-tech drug development (e.g. in the purification of antibodies for cancer treatment) with intelligent simulations – with the aim of reducing development times for life-saving medicines. In doing so, Onyx Biotech addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in the development of modern biologics, whose importance in medicine continues to grow.
The start-up was founded in September 2024 by the two brothers Florian and Gregor Essert with the vision that their technology would help develop life-saving medicines faster, more efficiently and more sustainably than ever before.
“It was crucial to work with strong industry partners right from the start in order to validate the technology in real-world use,” says Gregor Essert, co-founder and CEO of Onyx Biotech. In its short time so far, the start-up has already won over renowned industry partners in the biopharma sector (including one of Germany’s top five biopharma companies and a leading contract development organisation) and demonstrated the impact of its solution together with them. With their realistic simulations, Onyx Biotech’s digital twins saved up to 96% of the lab experiments that would otherwise have been necessary and shortened development cycles from months to just a few days.
Co-founder and CFO Florian comments: “At a time when sustainability is becoming increasingly important and the competitiveness of Germany and Europe seems to be at risk, our solution can make Germany the pharmacy of the world again.”
Florian’s statement refers to the current political developments in the USA and China, which will have a decisive influence on the biopharma industry. The USA plans to cut drug prices drastically, while China has declared the expansion of its own “biomanufacturing” a major goal in its current five-year plan. For Germany and Europe, the question now is: how can we make development more efficient in order to keep up with China and remain competitive despite falling drug prices?
The answer: “Development has to become cheaper and faster!” says Gregor, adding: “With our digital twins, we can do exactly that – cut costs and save time. In this way, we want to do our part to make Germany and Europe the pharmacy of the world again.”
Florian and Gregor agree that their Munich location is what has brought them this far. Florian has clear words of thanks: “The Munich start-up ecosystem has supported us immensely. Without TUM, UnternehmerTUM and BayStartUP – to name just a few – we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
With the successful pre-seed financing round, Onyx Biotech can now tackle the next development steps. Gregor sums it up: “With this financing round, made up of top investors with outstanding industry knowledge, we can now set the course for bringing our solution to the world. Because only when many companies use it does it create the greatest value for our society.”