Newly uncloaked Stipple Bio is connecting the dots toward multiple early-stage clinical studies for its lead precision oncology asset, buoyed by a $100 million series A financing round.
The “heavily oversubscribed” raise was co-led by RA Capital, a16z Bio+Health and Nextech Invest, according to an April 2 release. The round, which is expected to fund the company through 2029, also saw participation from existing partners Emerson Collective Investments, Google Ventures, LoLa Capital Partners and GordonMD Global Investments, among others.
With the cash in hand, Stipple expects STP-100 to enter the clinic early next year. The biotech’s lead program is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) leveraging tumor-specific binders designed to avoid on-target and off-tumor toxicity.
Stipple’s name evokes the process of marking a surface with small dots or specks, and the company’s lead asset was aptly identified using the company’s bespoke Pointillist platform. Named in honor of the eponymous painting technique, Pointillist is a modality-agnostic system that identifies tumor-specific cell surface epitopes—sections of antigens bound by an antibody’s paratope or a T-cell receptor—for development into potential cancer therapies.
Stipple CEO Jeff Landau said in a statement Thursday that the platform “will enable us to develop a pipeline of next-generation precision oncology therapeutics.”
While much of Thursday’s raise will support STP-100, Stipple says it also plans to use the cash to identify additional tumor-specific cell surface epitopes that could help the biotech build out a pipeline of oncology candidates.
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Founded in 2022 by UCSF researchers, Stipple aims to target tumor-specific cell surface epitopes and discover previously untreatable targets, ultimately developing safer and more effective therapies.
Epitope-level R&D helped Georgiamune earn a spot in Fierce Biotech’s Fierce 15 in 2025. The company’s cancer immunotherapy is designed to offer an opportunity for the 85% of patients who lack the active T cells needed to benefit from PD-1/L1 checkpoint inhibitors. The asset works by removing immune checkpoints that activate T cells.
