A new year brings a fresh Fierce Biotech Fundraising Tracker designed to record the significant amount of venture capital that flows into biopharma.
We’re keeping the same guidelines used for last year’s tracker and will only include financing rounds of $50 million and above.
January
Jan. 7—Soley Therapeutics
Series: C
Amount: $200 million
Investors: Surveyor Capital, HRTG Partners, RWN Management, Doug Leone Family Fund, Breyer Capital and GordonMD Global Investments
The South San Francisco-based company’s pipeline uses a cell stress sensing platform that harnesses artificial intelligence and “computer vision” to analyze thousands of responses in human cells. The fresh funds have been earmarked to take two of Soley’s oncology drugs into the clinic, led by an acute myeloid leukemia asset. Story
Jan. 7—Rakuten Medical
Series: F
Amount: $100 million
Investors: TaiAx Life Science Fund, Daiwa Securities, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, ABIES Capital, Nexus CVC, OEP Group, SBI Group, Rakuten Group and Rakuten Medical CEO Mickey Mikitani
San Diego-based Rakuten Medical is focused on a global phase 3 trial evaluating ASP-1929 in combination with Merck & Co.’s Keytruda as a first-line treatment for recurrent head and neck cancer. ASP-1929 consists of the anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody cetuximab conjugated to the light-activatable dye IRDye 700DX. Story
Jan. 7—Corsera Health
Series: A
Amount: $80 million
Investors: Forbion, Population Health Partners and others.
RNAi outfit Corsera will use the raise to support its first clinical trial, a phase 1 study of PCSK9-targeting siRNA COR-1004 that just began dosing patients. The company’s lead cardiovascular program also includes COR-2003, which is designed to target angiotensinogen and is set to enter a clinical trial of its own in mid-2026. The biotech’s goal is to develop preventative RNAi medicines for cardiovascular health that are taken yearly. Release
Jan. 7—Poplar Therapeutics
Series: A
Amount: $50 million
Investors: SR One, Vida Ventures and Platanus
The immunology company, previously known as Phylaxis Bioscience, will use the series A funds to advance its pipeline of anti-IgE therapies for food allergy and other atopic conditions. Poplar hopes its lead asset PHB-050, which is already in phase 1 trials, will offer a treatment for patients with highly elevated IgE levels who can’t benefit from existing therapies. Release
