Oncolytic viruses are viruses engineered to infect and kill cancer cells and, in doing so, alert the immune system to the tumour. TILT Biotherapeutics, a University of Helsinki spin-out founded by the oncologist Akseli Hemminki, has built TILT-123, an adenovirus carrying two immune signals, TNF and interleukin-2, meant to make other immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors and cell therapies work in tumours that ignore them.
The European Innovation Council granted €2,100,000 towards I-CREATE, a €5.07 million project that ran from July 2022 to December 2023, and the EIC Fund invested €5.9 million in a €22 million round in February 2023. According to the CORDIS report, more than 50 patients were enrolled across five Phase 1 and 1b studies. In 2024 TILT won a second, equity-only EIC award, 2-CREATE, for a Phase 2 trial, and in May 2025 it closed a $25.6 million Series B with the EIC Fund among its investors.
Company file
- Legal entity
- TILT Biotherapeutics Oy, business ID 2544020-5, Helsinki
- Founder and CEO
- Akseli Hemminki
- Lead product
- TILT-123 (igrelimogene litadenorepvec)
- Partners
- MSD (Keytruda combinations), Merck KGaA (Bavencio combination)
- Investors
- EIC Fund, Lifeline Ventures, Tesi, Stephen Industries
- EIC project
- I-CREATE, 1 Jul 2022 to 31 Dec 2023, closed
- EIC awards
- I-CREATE (2022, blended); 2-CREATE (2024, equity only)
Where TILT Stands Today
The Series B, TILT said, funds a Phase 2 trial of TILT-123 in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, a Phase 1b trial in melanoma combined with tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy and other Phase 1b trials. Hemminki said the first US site had opened and that at least five more would open in 2025. Interim results from the Phase 1b trials are expected in the second half of 2026. The company runs two collaborations with MSD, testing TILT-123 with the checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda in ovarian and lung cancer, and one with Merck KGaA; its most recent news, in June 2026, was a poster at the ASCO cancer meeting.
The Technology: Making Cold Tumours Hot
TILT describes its aim as "making cold tumors hot": TILT-123 is designed to infect the tumour, release the two immune signals locally and draw T cells in, and it can be given into a vein rather than injected into each tumour. In the Phase 1a PROTA trial in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, published in Nature Communications, the disease was controlled in 9 of 14 evaluable patients and the response rate was 20% at the highest dose; median overall survival was 190 days.
"There are no oncolytic viruses or checkpoint inhibitors currently approved for use in this indication."
Akseli Hemminki, founder and CEO, TILT Biotherapeutics, May 2025What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
I-CREATE set out to fight "ovarian, head & neck, and lung cancers" with the virus. The report records three completed Phase 1 dose-escalation studies. In the TUNIMO trial, 20 patients with mixed cancers showed "anti-tumor responses in both injected and non-injected lesions"; in TUNINTIL, 16 patients with melanoma resistant to checkpoint inhibitors produced one complete and one partial response and two cases of stable disease beyond ten months. Manufacturing supply was secured, and a further Phase 1b study in ovarian cancer was prepared.
- Phase 1 studies completedDeliveredThree dose escalations.
- Clinical supplyDeliveredPer CORDIS report.
- Follow-on financingDelivered€22M, then $25.6M.
- Proof of efficacyPendingPhase 2 under way.
What Has Happened Since the Award
The February 2023 round of €22 million was led by Lifeline Ventures and included the EIC Fund's €5.9 million and the €2.1 million EIC grant. EIC Fund board member Hermann Hauser said: "Combining grants and equity is unique to the European Innovation Council. It bridges the funding gap." The May 2025 Series B came from the same group of existing investors.
The Money
The Finnish accounts summarised by Asiakastieto show no meaningful revenue and operating losses of €2.5 to €2.9 million a year until 2023, rising to €6.7 million in 2024 and €7.4 million in 2025 as trials expanded; staff stood at 16 and the equity ratio at 75% at the end of 2025. TILT says it has secured more than €72 million in total, including US Department of Defense funding.
What cannot be checked
How much the EIC Fund put into the 2025 Series B under the 2-CREATE award, and how many patients have been dosed in the Phase 2 trial, are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
The EIC has backed TILT three times, with a grant, equity and a second equity award, following the company from early trials into Phase 2. The early data are modest but real; the ovarian cancer trial will show whether the bet pays.
What the project promised
Next-generation oncolytic immunotherapy in ovarian, head and neck, and lung cancers.
What the record shows
Phase 1 completed with early signs of activity, a Phase 2 in ovarian cancer and two large rounds with the EIC Fund.
The Verdict
Delivered its phase, the big test ahead
I-CREATE did what it promised: finished the first human studies and prepared the next ones. The EIC then kept investing. Efficacy, the only result that matters for patients, depends on the Phase 2 trial now running.
TILT Biotherapeutics has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on company statements, Finnish company data and EU project data, linked throughout.
