Gameto, a biotechnology startup solving the problem of accelerated ovarian aging to change the trajectory of women’s health and equality, today announced that it has raised a $20M in Series A funding led by Future Ventures, with participation from Bold Capital Partners, Lux Capital, Plum Alley, TA Ventures, Overwater Ventures, Robert Nelsen and Anne Wojcicki. Gameto also raised $3M in Seed funding in March 2020 from a range of notable investors including Jack Abraham, SALT Fund, FJ Labs, Dan Rose and Brian Armstrong.
With some of the initial research conducted at the George Church lab at Harvard Medical School, Gameto has achieved ground-breaking results in creating the first human reprogrammed cells of the ovary (granulosa cells & oocytes precursors) to solve the problem of accelerated ovarian aging, which occurs up to five times faster than any organ in the body.
Gameto is building a platform for ovarian therapeutics to initially address menopause and improve assisted fertility with three sequenced programs:
- Fertilo – To improve assisted fertility and with the mission to eliminate infertility over time for all women.
- Deovo – To initiate drug discovery and a computational platform for ovarian aging.
- Ameno – Aiming to make the medical burden of menopause optional.
Based on the rapid aging nature of ovaries, they are an excellent model to study human aging. Gameto wants to synchronize the pace of ovarian aging to the rate of aging in other organs such as the liver, brain, or skin. When ovaries are termed “geriatric” by many traditional medical criteria, the rest of the body is certainly not and this has contributed to the societal and demographic issues we are facing today. Considering human healthspan and lifespan have increased significantly, Gameto believes this biological phenomenon is no longer fit for purpose and is a problem worth solving. Gameto sees the potential to expand its platform to the entire aging market.
“Ovaries age five times faster than other organs, resulting in infertility, early menopause and increased years of poor health for women. We want to change the narrative of female reproductive longevity and address the root causes of sex/gender inequality in our society.” said Dr. Dina Radenkovic, CEO of Gameto.
Dina is a medical doctor, originally from Serbia, trained in the United Kingdom and United States. She worked in the aging field at the Buck Institute in California, was a co-founder and Chief Science Officer of longevity clinic Hooke London and is a Partner at SALT. Gameto also counts Martin Varsavsky as Chairman, Martin is an entrepreneur and among others is the founder of Prelude Fertility, the largest proprietary network of fertility clinics in the USA, and Overture Life, a company working to automate the embryology lab. Gameto is also a part of The Biolabs@NYULangone program.
