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Life Sciences Financings and Commentary #46 - February 6, 2021 - February 12, 2021
Financings
Number of deals: 29 & Total capital invested: $1.79B
- Base raised $3.4M led by Female Founders Fund to build an at-home lab testing company.
- BigHat Biosciences raised $19M led by a16z Bio to scale their machine-learning antibody discovery platform. Congrats Mark and Peyton.
- Clear raised $100M from Enlightened Hospitality Investments, The Partnership Fund for New York City, and 32 Equity to implement their “vaccine passport” product.
- Covicept Therapeutics raised $2.3M led by Forbion to develop small molecules to inhibit the replication and spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other RNA viruses.
- Cyteir Therapeutics raised $80M led by A Capital Management to develop their pipeline of cancer medicines focused on RAD51, involved in DNA repair.
- Daybreak Health raised $1.8M led by Maven Ventures to build online counseling products for teenagers.
- Day One Biopharmaceuticals raised $130M led by RA Capital Management to develop their pipeline of pediatric cancer drugs.
- Drug Farm raised $56M from WuXi AppTec, Detong Capital, among others to use their AI platform to develop new medicines around innate immunity.
- Ensoma raised $70M led by 5AM Ventures to build a genomics platform for gene therapies focused on HSCs.
- Evolve BioSystems raised $55M from Cargill and Manna Tree to commercialize their probiotic, Evivo, to treat infant gut dysbiosis and GlycoGuard for animal health.
- Hoxton Farms raised $3.7M led by Founders Fund to develop cell-based fat to integrated into plant-based products. Congrats Max and Ed.
- Hyperfine Research raised $90M from GV, Altium Capital, among others to commercialize their portable MRI device, Swoop.
- Immunai raised $60M from a series of family offices to grow their immunoprofiling business.
- Innocare Pharma raised $392M from Hillhouse Capital among others to develop its pipeline of cancer and autoimmune drugs focused in China with its lead asset, orelabrutinib, a BTK inhibitor.
- Insightin Health raised $12M co-led by Blue Heron Capital and Blue Venture Fund to scale their healthcare marketing product.
- Koa Health raised $36M with Wellington Partners Life Sciences and Ancora Finance Group to grow their product suite focused on mental health patients.
- Labster raised $60M led by a16z to scale their laboratory simulation platform.
- Mate Fertility raised $2.8M led by Struck Capital to build a software-enabled fertility services company.
- Modern Health raised $74M led by Founders Fund to scale their mental health benefits platform.
- Nanome raised $3M led by Bullpen Capital to apply VR to drug development.
- Notch Therapeutics raised $85M led by a confidential fund with Allogene Therapeutics among others participating. The company develops iPSC-derived cell therapies for cancer centered around its Engineered Thymic Niche (ETN) platform.
- PatientsLikeMe raised $26M from Alta Partners, Optum Ventures, among others to reorient their business after CFIUS regulations for their healthcare social networks where patients can share both personal stories and health data about their medical conditions, enabling them to find new options for treatments, connect with others and take action to improve their outcomes.
- Personal Genome Diagnostics raised $103M led by Cowen Healthcare Investments to scale their cancer genomics business.
- Pipeline Therapeutics raised $80M from Perceptive Adivosrs, Casdin Capital, among others to develop its two lead programs, in sensorineural hearing loss and multiple sclerosis.
- Seraxis raised $40M led by Eli Lilly to develop cell therapies for diabetes.
- Sitka raised $14M led by Venrock to build out a telehealth product to connect primary care physicians with specialists.
- SpyBiotech raised $32.5M led by Braavos Investment Advisors to develop vaccines for cancer and infectious diseases.
- Theator raised $15.5M led by Insight Partners to build out their computer vision product for surgeons. Cool founding story.
- Zocdoc raised $150M led by Francisco Partners to scale their healthcare scheduling platform.
Exits
Number of exits: 1 & Total exit value: Over $300M
- NexImmune raised $94M in an IPO to develop their pipeline of immunotherapies in cancer with a focus on AML/MDS and multiple myeloma - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1538210/000119312521031549/d216127ds1a.htm
Deals
Number of deals: 3 & Total deal value: Over $3.5B
- Ensoma also announced a deal with Takeda, which licensed vectors from the company for up to five rare disease targets in a deal that could deliver as much as $1.25B in potential milestones. Moreover, Takeda invested $10M in the latest financing round - https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/ensoma-debuts-70m-takeda-deal-to-pursue-off-shelf-genomic-medicines
- Molecular Templates executed an R&D deal with Bristol Myers Squibb with $70M in an upfront payments and milestones worth up to $1.3B. Molecular Templates will work on therapies designed for unnamed oncology targets to kill targeted cells by forcing receptor internalization, delivering payloads and enzymatically inactivating ribosomes - http://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2021/02/11/2174013/0/en/Molecular-Templates-Establishes-Multi-Target-Collaboration-With-Bristol-Myers-Squibb-for-the-Discovery-and-Development-of-Next-Generation-Engineered-Toxin-Bodies-for-the-Treatment-.html
- Ribon Therapeutics announced a deal with Ono Pharmaceuticals in a deal with up to ¥15.4B for exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the company’s phase I PARP7 inhibitor RBN-2397 for the treatment of solid tumors in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and ASEAN countries - https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/ribon-therapeutics-announces-license-agreement-with-ono-pharmaceutical-co-ltd-to-develop-and-commercialize-rbn-2397-in-japan-south-korea-taiwan-and-asean-countries/
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 -