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Axial invests and partners in early-stage life sciences companies. If you or someone you know has a great idea or company in life sciences, Axial would be excited to get to know you and possibly invest in your vision and company — info@axialsprawl.com
Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #8 - May 16, 2020 - May 22, 2020
Financings
Number of deals: 28 & Total capital invested: $1.29B
- Amplyx Pharma raised $53M from Sofinnova, Pfizer, and Adage Capital to develop new medicines for fungal infections - https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/pfizer-adage-bump-up-amplyx-s-series-c-to-top-90-million
- Amwell raised $194M from Allianz and Takeda to scale up their telehealth product.
- Apollo Agriculture raised $6M led by Anthemis Exponential Ventures to build a farm management software product to help growers manage their farms and finance them.
- ARTMS raised $19M led by Deerfield to grow their diagnostic imaging isotope business.
- Atea Pharmaceuticals raised $215M led by Bain Capital Life Sciences to initiate a phase 2 trial of their oral purine nucleotide prodrug in people with moderate cases of COVID-19.
- Big Sky Health raised $8M from Greycroft to scale their fasting app.
- ChromaCode raised $10M from Adjuvant Capital to bring multiplex to older PCR devices. This is pretty interesting - excited to see what happens here.
- Clear Labs raised $18M led by Redmile Group to continue to grow their NGS platform for food safety.
- Day One Biopharmaceuticals rasied $60M from Canaan, Access Biotechnology, and Atlas Venture to develop new medicines for pediatric cancer patients - https://dayonebio.net/news/news-3/ and
- Fountain Therapeutics raised $6M led by Khosla Ventures to drug aging drugs from their cellular imaging platform: screen drugs against old and young cells and through high-resolution imaging, figure out which drugs reverse aging.
- GATT Technologies raised €10.5M led by NGI with Johnson & Johnson Innovation joining to support the company’s clinical trial for their hemostatic seals in general surgery - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gatt-technologies-announces-10-5m-series-b-funding-appointment-of-new-ceo-and-expansion-of-supervisory-board-to-lead-company-through-next-development-stage-301060228.html
- HotSpot Therapeutics raised $65M led by SR One to develop their pipeline of allosteric inhibitors to pursue currently undrugged targets.
- Mindset Health raised $1.1M from Y Combinator and others to bring hypnotherapy to mental health.
- Mindstrong raised $100M from General Catalyst, ARCH, Foresite, and 8VC to build a full-stack mental health service product. The business model is very similar to Virta Health where Mindstrong partners with payers and does not charge patients for use.
- Nautilus Biotechnology raised $76M led by Vulcan Capital to build a proteomics services business.
- nextProtein raised $11M led by Blue Ocean Partners to scale up their insect-based animal feed and fertilizer products.
- ObvioHealth raised $17M led by TKS1 to scale their virtual health product that enables patients to participate in trials from their homes.
- Octant raised $30M led by a16z Bio to bring their synthetic biology toolkit to drugging GPCRs.
- Omada Health raised $57M led by Perceptive Advisors to buy muscle and joint pain company Physera and expand their chronic disease product - https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/omada-health-raises-57-million-acquires-physera-for-30-million.html
- PathSpot raised $6.5M led by Valor Siren Ventures to build out a hand scanner to track handwashing frequency - https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/21/pathspot-sells-a-scanner-that-fact-checks-your-handwashing-efficacy/
- Rallybio raised $145M led by Pivotal bioVenture Partners to bring the expertise of former Alexion executives to treat several rare diseases.
- Rapid Micro Biosystems raised $120M led by Ally Bridge Group to commercialize their contaminant testing product - https://www.bioworld.com/articles/435253-rapid-micro-biosystems-raises-120m-to-advance-microbial-detection-platform
- Sound Agriculture raised $22M led by S2G Ventures to commercialize their plant breeding growth products -
- Seraphina Therapeutics raised $5.5M led by Domain Associates to commercialize pentadecanoic acid as an essential fatty acid and daily nutritional supplement.
- SQZ Biotech raised $65M led by Temasek to continue to commercialize their cell therapy manufacturing platform.
- Tava Health raised $3M led by Peterson Ventures to develop a telemedicine product to help patients find a therapist and schedule/pay them.
- WOOM Fertility raised €2M led by BrightCap Ventures to develop their software product monitoring and improving women’s fertility.
- Zentera Therapeutics spun out of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals raised $20M from OrbiMed Asia to develop three cancers therapies in China - https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/05/20/2036255/0/en/Zentalis-Pharmaceuticals-Announces-20-Million-Series-A-Financing-to-Establish-a-Chinese-Joint-Venture-Zentera-Therapeutics.html
Exits
Number of exits: 2 & Total exit value: At least $800M
- Applied Molecular Transport filed to raise $100M in an IPO to develop their pipeline of small molecules for inflammatory diseases - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1801777/000119312520145011/d875118ds1.htm
- Inari Medical filed for a $110M IPO to development their medical devices focused on venous diseases - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1531048/000119312520044794/d843365ds1.htm
I used to play football a long time ago - I had some decent success mainly because of my teammates with some of them playing in the NFL. Every practice, every game was an existential fight. I’m not that athletic so every year some 6’4 monster would show up trying to take my spot. Similarly, all of these companies are fighting for their right to exist whether they raised $1M or $100M. Building a great business requires passion and focus. A really powerful and useful framework to lead groups of people and win was developed by Bill Walsh -