Recent Venture Capital Financings
Company	Investors	Use Of Proceeds
Talaris Therapeutics, Inc.; Boston and Louisville, KY	After raising a $100m series A round in April 2019, Talaris revealed a $115m series B round on 6 October co-led by Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company) and Viking Global Investors with participation from new investors Cormorant Asset Management, Invus, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Eventide Asset Management, Logos Capital, Aisling Capital and Pamoja Capita as well as prior backers Blackstone Life Sciences, Longitude Capital and Qiming Venture Partners USA. (Also see "Finance Watch: Hatteras Nearly Halfway To $200m Goal For New Early-Stage VC Fund" - Scrip, 19 April, 2019.)	The company is developing cell therapies that are designed to induce durable immune tolerance. It will use the series B proceeds to conduct the ongoing Phase III pivotal trial for lead cell therapy candidate FCR001, which is enrolling first-time living donor kidney transplant recipients. The new funding also will support Phase II trials for FCR001 in diffuse systemic sclerosis and in people who previously have received a living donor kidney transplant.
VectivBio AG; Basel, Switzerland	The company revealed a $110m crossover round – a potential precursor to an IPO – on 15 October. The crossover investors included new funders Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Cormorant Capital and Eventide Asset Management and existing investors Versant Ventures, OrbiMed, Novo Holdings, BPI France, Tekla Healthcare Investors, Inserm Transfer Initiative and Cowen Healthcare Investments.	Rare disease-focused VectivBio will support Phase III development of the next-generation GLP-2 analog apraglutide for short bowel syndrome, early commercialization activities and further development of the company’s pipeline through business development. The company disclosed $35m in initial venture capital financing in January. (Also see "Finance Watch: Billions Flow Into Biopharma Via Three New Investment Funds" - Scrip, 11 January, 2020.)
A2 Biotherapeutics, Inc.; Agoura Hills, CA	The Column Group, Vida Ventures, Samsara BioCapital, Nextech Invest, Casdin Capital, Euclidean Capital, UC Investments (Office of the Chief Investment Officer of the Regents) and Hartford HealthCare Endowment participated in a $71.5m series B round that A2 Biotherapeutics announced on 6 October. The company launched nearly a year ago with $57m in series A cash. (Also see "Finance Watch: Cell And Gene Therapies Buck 2019’s Venture Capital Trend" - Scrip, 9 November, 2019.)	A2 Biotherapeutics is developing cell therapies to treat solid tumors with its T-cell module (Tmod) platform. The technology is used to engineer T-cells with an activating mechanism to kill tumor cells with a blocking mechanism to protect normal cells. A2 will use its series B proceeds to advance the Tmod platform and for clinical development and in-house manufacturing of its three near-term product candidates, the first of which is expected to enter the clinic in 2022.
Nimbus Therapeutics, Inc.; Cambridge, MA	Nimbus said on 14 October that it closed a $60m private financing round from RA Capital Management and BVF Partners LP.	The company uses its structure-based drug discovery engine to design small molecules against difficult-to-target proteins that drive disease pathology. Nimbus will use its new funding to accelerate its allosteric tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor into Phase II early next year, take its hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) inhibitor into the clinic next year and advance its preclinical portfolio.
Cedilla Therapeutics; Cambridge, MA	Cedilla launched in April 2018 with a $56.2m series A round and revealed a $57.6m series B round on 13 October that was co-led by Casdin Capital and Boxer Capital of Tavistock Group and included new investors Eli Lilly and Company and Schroder Adveq as well as other undisclosed institutional investors and existing investor Third Rock Ventures. (Also see "Finance Watch: Former Alexion Execs Raise $37m To Launch Rare-Disease Focused RallyBio" - Scrip, 27 April, 2018.)	The company is developing small molecules for cancer and other diseases caused by protein dysregulation. Its drug candidates are designed to modulate functionally relevant proteoforms, including through protein inhibition or degradation. Cedilla will use its series B cash to identify its first two clinical drug candidates and expand its discovery efforts.
Walden Biosciences Inc.; Cambridge, MA	Walden launched on 6 October with a $51m series A financing led by ARCH Venture Partners and UCB Ventures	The company is focused rare and common kidney diseases and its drug candidates will address kidney-specific cells – known as podocytes – and biologic processes to restore renal function rather than slow its decline. Walden’s first two programs target soluble urokinase plasminogen activating receptor (suPAR) and dynamin to address proteinuria and improve renal function.
Federation Bio; South San Francisco	The company launched on 6 October with a $50m series A round led by Horizons Ventures with participation from existing investors Venrock and Altitude as well as additional new investors Seventure Partners/Health for Life Capital.	Federation is developing microbial therapeutics in diseases where the microbiome may play a curative role. The therapeutics will combine microbial strains into diverse consortia, sometimes with genetically engineered bacteria to enhance the immune system, with the potential to treat cancer, autoimmune disorders and other diseases. Federation will use the series A proceeds to build out its in-house development process, which will enable Phase I/II manufacturing, with the goal of advancing its lead program in secondary hyperoxaluria into the clinic in 2022.
RayzeBio, Inc.; San Diego	Co-lead investors venBio Partners and Versant Ventures provided $45m in financing along with Samsara Capital in a series A round to launch RayzeBio on 14 October.	The company is developing tumor-targeted radiopharmaceuticals and it already has identified 10 promising drug targets, entered into a partnership with PeptiDream Inc. for the discovery of novel macrocyclic peptide mimetics that will help RayzeBio’s radiopharmaceuticals bind to their targets, and it selected the alpha-emitting radioisotope Actinium-225 as its primary nuclear payload.
Sensei Biotherapeutics, Inc.; Boston and Gaithersburg, MD	Sensei said on 7 October that it completed a $28.5m series AA financing co-led by Cambrian Biopharma and H&S Ventures, with participation from new investors Future Ventures, Christian Angermayer’s Apeiron Investment Group and Presight Ventures, Apeiron’s US arm.	The company is advancing multiple clinical and pre-clinical studies, including for its lead program SNS-301, a bacteriophage engineered to express the tumor-associated antigen aspartate β-hydroxylase (ASPH). In addition to the SNS-301 program, the company will use its new funding to advance multiple novel immunotherapies based on its Immunophage platform that combines a vaccine’s ability to generate antigen-specific B- and T-cells with payloads of immunomodulatory nanobodies.
Scribe Therapeutics, Inc.; Alameda, CA	Scribe was founded in 2018 but emerged from stealth mode on 6 October, revealing that its work to date has been funded by a $20m series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from additional investors.	The company is developing a platform for efficient and specific in vivo genome editing based on research by CRISPR gene editing pioneer and Nobel prize winner Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley as well as the Oakes Lab and Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley. Scribe’s initial focus is neurodegenerative diseases and it has entered into a collaboration with Biogen for CRISPR-based therapies that address the underlying cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Azitra Inc.; Branford, CT	Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer, said on 15 October that it invested $8m in Azitra’s $17m series B round.	The microbiome-focused company is using engineered and wild-type bacteria to develop biotherapeutics, over-the-counter and cosmetic products for dermatology indications. Bayer and Azitra entered into a partnership in January to develop treatments for skin conditions and diseases based on the microbiome-focused firm’s proprietary Staphylococcus epidermitis strains. (Also see "Azitra Taps Microbiome For Dermatology Therapies, Including Cancer Supportive Care" - Scrip, 6 March, 2020.) Azitra’s initial therapeutic focus is cancer therapy-associated skin rashes, Netherton syndrome and other orphan indications, and atopic dermatitis.
Chord Therapeutics SA; Geneva	Chord launched on 13 October with $16m in series A financing from Omega Funds.	The rare disease specialist will use its new cash to advance its lead drug candidate CRD1, an oral small molecule for the treatment of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, through Phase II proof-of-concept. The active substance in CRD1 is cladribine, which is approved under various brand names for multiple sclerosis and oncology indications, including Merck KGaA’s Mavenclad for MS.
Janpix Inc.; Cambridge, MA	Janpix seed and series A funder Medicxi led the company’s $10m series B round announced on 7 October. Janpix raised a $19m series A round in 2017. (Also see "Finance Watch: J&J Notes JLabs Incubators' Success Stories To Date" - Scrip, 14 October, 2017.)	The company is developing nonvalent small molecule STAT protein degraders and will use its new funding to take its lead program targeting STAT3 and STAT5 into clinical testing for the treatment of hematological cancers.

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