The new capital will allow the VC arm to create and finance "a new and larger portfolio of innovative companies that align with the future strategies" of Merck's businesses.

In this month's issue of Start-Up, we profile 4Tech, Advanced Cooling Therapy, Enumeral Biomedical Holdings, MiNDERA, PeptiMimesis and Synchron.

PeptiMimesis is developing first-in-class transmembrane therapeutic peptides with potential in immuno-oncology, oncology and immune diseases. Its technology is based on research showing that targeting the transmembrane domain using a single peptide can block several of the processes involved in the development of cancer by disrupting dimerization of target receptors, impairing the formation of receptor complexes and indirectly blocking the subsequent signaling pathways