CE-Ventures joins $60m Series A for UK tau degrader developer Oyster Therapeutics

CE-Ventures has participated in a $60 million Series A round at Oyster Therapeutics, the London-based biotech developing targeted protein degradation therapies for neurodegenerative disease. The corporate venture arm of UAE-based Crescent Enterprises did not disclose the size of its individual commitment.

Oyster, previously known as Kesmalea Therapeutics, is a pharmaceutical company working on next-generation targeted protein degraders. Its initial focus is tau-driven neurodegenerative conditions, Alzheimer's disease among them. Abnormal accumulation of tau is a defining feature of the tauopathies.

The lead programme is an oral, brain-penetrant degrader aimed at tau. It is designed to enter the central nervous system and to remove pathological forms of the protein selectively while leaving healthy tau intact. The company's stated aim for the oral candidate is a practical treatment approach that can reach large patient populations.

Behind that candidate sits SELFTAC, Oyster's proprietary platform. Conventional bifunctional degraders are large molecules, and size limits where they can go. SELFTAC works differently: smaller components cross biological membranes and then self-assemble into bifunctional degraders once inside. The design is meant to improve oral bioavailability and central nervous system penetration while retaining the ability to direct the cell's natural protein-disposal machinery toward disease-causing proteins. The rest of Oyster's pipeline consists of candidates generated through the platform.

The company has also signed a sponsored research agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital, giving it access to specialist tau biology capabilities, including patient-derived neuronal cell lines and techniques to generate and detect oligomeric tau. The research is supervised by Dr. Catarina Silva, an investigator at the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and a leading tau researcher.

Rob Johnson, chief executive of Oyster Therapeutics, said he welcomed CE-Ventures as an investor and its support for the company's next growth phase. The financing, he said, would accelerate the lead tau degrader toward the clinic and advance the SELFTAC platform, which he described as having the potential to unlock a new generation of medicines for central nervous system diseases. He said he looked forward to working with CE-Ventures and the wider investor syndicate to build a leading targeted protein degradation company.

Tushar Singhvi, deputy CEO and head of investments at Crescent Enterprises, said CE-Ventures continues to expand its life sciences portfolio by backing differentiated technologies with the potential to address significant unmet medical need. Oyster, he said, combines a proprietary platform with a clear therapeutic focus in neurodegenerative disease, and new approaches that address underlying disease biology are urgently needed.

Dr. Damir Illich, VP for life sciences at CE-Ventures, said SELFTAC aims to combine the power of bifunctional degraders with properties that support brain penetration and oral delivery. He described the lead tau programme as a differentiated approach in neurodegenerative disease, supported by strong scientific expertise and a path toward clinical development.

The deal adds neuroscience and targeted protein degradation to a CE-Ventures life sciences portfolio that already spans drug discovery, genetic medicine and targeted therapeutics. Based in Sharjah, the firm invests across biotechnology, deeptech and consumer businesses, and Oyster broadens the range of therapeutic technologies represented across its holdings.

Gulf corporate capital has been moving into early-stage drug discovery abroad, and neuroscience is a harder sell than most. Central nervous system programmes carry long timelines and a history of trial setbacks, which is why investors often prefer a platform they can reuse across several targets over a single asset. Oyster's case rests on that split: the tau degrader is the near-term test of the science, and SELFTAC is the piece that could outlast it.

The $60 million is earmarked for the tau candidate's passage toward clinical trials and for further development of the SELFTAC platform, with the hospital collaboration running alongside both.