Aerska, a biotechnology company developing RNA-based medicines for central nervous system diseases, has raised $39M in a Series A round to accelerate development of its proprietary brain shuttle platform.
The financing was led by EQT Dementia Fund and age1, with participation from Iaso Ventures and existing investors.
The round brings Aerska’s total funding to $60M, following a seed round completed in October 2025.
Targeting the blood-brain barrier challenge
Aerska is focused on overcoming one of the biggest limitations in neurological drug development: delivering RNA therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier. Its antibody-oligo conjugate (AOC) platform is designed to enable systemically administered RNAi therapies to reach the brain effectively.
The company’s approach supports intravenous or subcutaneous dosing, enabling broad and uniform distribution throughout the brain and achieving durable gene silencing. This opens new possibilities for treating genetically driven neurological disorders that have remained difficult to address with existing modalities.
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Focus on RNAi for CNS diseases
The platform is being developed to support RNA interference therapies that act directly at the genetic drivers of disease. By enabling RNA medicines to reach deep brain regions, Aerska aims to unlock new treatment strategies for conditions such as genetically driven forms of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.
According to CEO and co-founder Jack O’Meara, the ability to systemically deliver RNAi therapies to the brain represents a major shift in how CNS diseases can be treated, with the new funding strengthening the company’s path toward clinical development.
Strategic investors join the board
As part of the Series A, Arno de Wilde, Managing Director at EQT, Philip Scheltens, Partner and Head of the Dementia Fund at EQT Life Sciences, and Alex Colville, General Partner at age1, will join Aerska’s board of directors.
Philip Scheltens noted that Aerska’s focus on early, upstream intervention and genetically defined neurological diseases has the potential to improve outcomes for patient populations that have long been underserved by current treatment options.
Next steps toward clinical development
The new capital will be used to further advance Aerska’s brain shuttle and AOC platform toward clinical readiness, supporting preclinical development of systemically delivered RNAi candidates for CNS indications.
About Aerska
Aerska is a biotechnology company developing RNA medicines to treat, delay, and prevent diseases of the brain. By combining RNAi therapeutics with proprietary brain shuttle technology, the company aims to enable targeted delivery to the central nervous system and address neurological diseases at their genetic root.
