Swedish company BioLamina to enable next-generation cell therapies for serious chronic diseases with €20 million EIB financing

• EIB backs Swedish biotech scale-up BioLamina with €20 million to enable stem cell technologies targeting diseases such as type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and heart failure
• Funding aims to reinforce company’s technological base and growth prospects
• Supported by InvestEU programme, operation strengthens European life sciences innovation and competitiveness

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending €20 million to Swedish biotechnology company BioLamina to expand its development of laminin technologies enabling next-generation cell therapies and more advanced, animal-free methods for drug safety testing. Cell therapies can be used to target conditions such as type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, heart failure, acute liver failure and cancer. Many of these conditions remain difficult to treat or have no cure.

BioLamina will use the EIB financing to expand and scale up production of its laminins, unique proteins used to grow and maintain cells in laboratory environments. Developed through pioneering research by the company’s founders, these proteins act as a foundation for healthy cell growth, enabling the production of consistent, high-quality cells needed for emerging cell therapies and more reliable drug testing. BioLamina’s technologies are used by academic researchers, biotechnology companies and large pharmaceutical organisations across the world.

Backed by the InvestEU programme, the EIB financing will help the Stockholm-based company optimise its manufacturing processes, expand its product portfolio, reinforce its technological base and bolster business growth. These advances will strengthen the European Union’s position in life sciences and regenerative medicine.

“Europe needs to turn scientific excellence into global companies,” said EIB Vice-President Karl Nehammer. “By supporting BioLamina’s growth, we are helping ensure that cutting-edge innovation in life sciences can scale in Europe, creating jobs, strengthening competitiveness and ultimately improving public health.”

The EIB loan is in the form of venture debt, a type of long-term financing for innovative, fast-growing companies that complements venture capital and other equity investment while limiting immediate dilution for existing shareholders. The EIB uses venture debt to help companies scale operations and extend their funding runway.

“Cell therapies are rapidly moving from scientific promise to clinical reality, but scaling the production of high-quality cell products remains a fundamental challenge,” said BioLamina CEO Klaus Langhoff-Roos. “This financing allows us to expand our technology and manufacturing capabilities at a critical time, supporting more reliable and scalable development of next-generation therapies.”

The operation contributes to the InvestEU objective of promoting research, development and innovation across Europe. It also supports the EIB Group’s TechEU programme and broader EU initiatives such as BioTechEU aimed at strengthening Europe’s competitiveness in biotechnology and life sciences.

Background information

EIB Group

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group is the financing arm of the European Union, owned by the 27 Member States, and one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world. In 2025, the EIB Group signed €100 billion in new financing and advisory services for over 870 high-impact projects under eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, territorial cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, strong global partnerships and the savings and investments union. Beyond long-term loans for large infrastructure, the EIB Group crowds in private investment for high-risk innovative projects and businesses, with a growing role in Europe’s markets for venture debt, venture capital, guarantees and securitisations.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is the subsidiary of the EIB Group specialised in providing guarantees and equity to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses and startups across Europe. Acting as an anchor investor, through its extensive network of partnering banks and investment funds, the EIF mobilises private investment and nurtures the ecosystem of venture capital funds to support innovative European entrepreneurs.

In 2023, the EIF together with six Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands) launched the European Tech Champions Initiative, a fund-of-funds to scale up innovative startups. To date, this initiative has already enabled the creation of 14 European venture capital mega-funds and scaled up 43 companies, including 11 unicorns (with more than €1 billion in capital).

Photos of the EIB Group's representatives and headquarters, logo files and video B-roll for media use are available here. 

InvestEU

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps crowd in private investment for the European Union’s strategic priorities such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings all EU financial instruments previously available for supporting investments within the European Union together under one roof, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.  

BioLamina

BioLamina is a biotechnology company with deep expertise in matrix biology and cell culture. The company develops and manufactures laminin-based cell culture substrates that enable the reliable growth and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells and other primary cells.

By providing defined, high-quality and scalable cell culture solutions, BioLamina supports researchers and developers in advancing cell therapies and improving the accuracy of cell-based models used in drug discovery and development.

Biolaminin® substrates are full-length, chemically defined and animal origin-free human recombinant laminins, designed for controlled cell culture systems and used in cell therapy development, including phase I–III clinical trials across major regulatory jurisdictions.

BioLamina is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.