Oniria Therapeutics

oniriatherapeutics.com ↗ ·Barcelona ·Seed

Oniria Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class small molecules in precision oncology that target 'cancer persistence' — dormant tumour cells that survive treatment and drive relapse and metastasis. Its lead asset ONR-001 allosterically activates TET2, a master epigenetic enzyme, pushing persistent tumour cells into deep dormancy or death; preclinical efficacy has been shown in melanoma, colon cancer and acute myeloid leukaemia, with Phase I targeted for 2027. Founded in 2021 as a spin-off of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), the University of Barcelona and ICREA, it closed a €1.28M seed round in 2023, was named one of Catalonia's 10 most disruptive companies by ACCIÓ (2024), and in Dec 2025 won €1.77M from Spain's Ministry of Science (CPP 2024) with VHIO and ICIQ. It is headquartered in Barcelona (Cellex Centre, Vall d'Hebron campus) and has ~13-17 employees.

Founded

2021

Founders

Total funds raised

€1.3M

SectorsBiotech, Oncology, Drug Discovery, Precision Medicine, Pharma Start-up MapHealthtech & Bio › Drug discovery & therapeutics developers

Suggest a correction

Founders

Carles Galdeano

Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor (drug discovery)

Esther Riambau

Co-Founder, CEO & Board Member

Héctor G. Palmer

Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Isabel Puig Borreil

Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor (new therapeutic targets)

Josep Tabernero

Co-Founder & Clinical Advisor

Xavier Barril

Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor (computational chemistry)

Global models 5

Relay Therapeutics

United States · relaytx.com ↗

Discovers allosteric small molecules for precision oncology and funded them through venture rounds before its IPO, the same asset model as Oniria's allosteric TET2 activator.

$520MComparable

Scorpion Therapeutics

United States · scorpiontx.com ↗

A VC-backed biotech building first-in-class precision-oncology small molecules to license or partner with pharma, which is how Oniria plans to take its assets forward.

$375MComparable

Foghorn Therapeutics

United States · foghorntx.com ↗

Develops small molecules that act on chromatin and epigenetic regulators to treat cancer, the same epigenetic small-molecule approach as Oniria's TET2 programme.

$300MComparable

ORIC Pharmaceuticals

United States · oricpharma.com ↗

Builds small molecules against the mechanisms that let tumours survive therapy and relapse, the resistance and persistence problem Oniria targets.

$230MComparable

HiberCell

United States · hibercell.com ↗

A venture-backed oncology biotech developing drugs against tumour dormancy, relapse and metastasis, which is almost exactly Oniria's cancer-persistence thesis.

$160MComparable