VC Deals Only: Bayer powers Versant cell therapy startup to $250M...

VC Deals Only: Bayer powers Versant cell therapy startup to $250M...: Versant Ventures’ Century Therapeutics has  exited  stealth with $250 million to take allogeneic cell therapies into the clinic. Bayer’s V...

Bayer powers Versant cell therapy startup to $250M round

Versant Ventures’ Century Therapeutics has exited stealth with $250 million to take allogeneic cell therapies into the clinic. Bayer’s VC wing led the investment with the support of Versant and Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics (FCDI).

Century, like other allogeneic cell therapy players, is trying to improve on autologous products that require the administration of a patient’s own cells back to them by creating off-the-shelf alternatives. The potential of allogeneic therapies has attracted a lot of attention—Allogene Therapeutics alone has raised more than $500 million—but Century thinks it can improve on existing approaches.

That belief rests on Century’s use of self-renewing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). Century puts these cells through multiple rounds of cellular engineering to create master cell banks. By expanding and differentiating the cells in these banks into immune effector cells, Century thinks it can supply “vast amounts” of homogeneous off-the-shelf products. Other developers of allogeneic cell therapies work with nonrenewable donor-derived cells.

Versant set Century up last year to build on the research of the biotech’s scientific cofounders, Marcela Maus, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School and Hiro Nakauchi, M.D., Ph.D., of Stanford University School of Medicine.

A partnership with Fujifilm subsidiary FCDI followed later in 2018, providing Century with access to an iPSC platform, immune effector cell differentiation protocols and a manufacturing service provider.  

Leaps by Bayer, the VC wing of the German life science company, has committed $215 million to enable Century to build on this platform. With the involvement of Versant and FCDI bringing the size of the round up to $250 million, Century is positioned to move multiple iPSC-derived treatments for blood cancers and solid tumors into human testing.

The pursuit of iPSC-derived cell therapies may take Century into uncharted waters. Maus is among the researchers to previously note the challenges this will entail, telling Cancer Discovery last year that “we don’t have a long safety track record of using pluripotent stem cells clinically, much less genetically manipulated ones.” Other researchers have questioned how companies will convince the FDA that their products are completely free from undifferentiated stem cells. 

Century is well equipped to try to overcome these hurdles. As well as raising $250 million, Century has put together a leadership team with deep experience in immuno-oncology and cell therapies.

Ex-Juno Therapeutics CSO Hyam Levitsky, M.D., has taken up the post of president of R&D at Century. Luis Borges, Ph.D., an ex-Amgen scientist who spent the past two years at Cell Medica, has come on board as CSO. And longtime Celgene and Roche employee Adrienne Farid, Ph.D., has arrived as chief development officer. This team will be led by Lalo Flores, Ph.D., who helped to guide Versant’s Novira Therapeutics to a takeover by Johnson & Johnson in 2015.

Source. FierceBiotech, Nick Paul Taylor, July 1, 2019

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VC Deals Only: Calm raises $27M to McConaughey you to sleep

VC Deals Only: Calm raises $27M to McConaughey you to sleep: Meditation app unicorn Calm wants you to doze off to the dulcet tones of actor Matthew McConaughey’s southern drawl or writer Stephen Fry’s...

Calm raises $27M to McConaughey you to sleep

Meditation app unicorn Calm wants you to doze off to the dulcet tones of actor Matthew McConaughey’s southern drawl or writer Stephen Fry’s English accent. Calm’s Sleep Stories feature that launched last year is a hit, with more than 150 million listens from its 2 million paid subscribers and 50 million downloads. While lots of people want to meditate, they need to sleep. The seven-year-old app has finally found its must-have feature that makes it a habit rather than an aspiration.

Keen to capitalize on solving the insomnia problems plaguing people around the world, Lightspeed tells TechCrunch it has just invested $27 million into a Series B extension round in Calm alongside some celebrity angels at a $1 billion valuation. The cash will help the $70 per year subscription app further expand from guided meditations into more self-help masterclasses, stretching routines, relaxing music, breathing exercises, stories for children and celebrity readings that lull you to sleep.

The funding adds to Calm’s $88 million Series B led by TPG that was announced in February that was also at a $1 billion valuation, bringing the full B round to $115 million and Calm’s total funding to about $141 million. Lightspeed partner Nicole Quinn confirms the fund started talks with Calm around the same time as TPG, but took longer to finish due diligence, which is why the valuation didn’t grow despite Calm’s progress since February.

“Nicole and Lightspeed are valuable partners as we continue to double down on entertainment through our content,” Calm’s head of communications Alexia Marchetti tells me. The startup plans to announce more celebrity content tie-ins later this summer.

Broadening its appeal is critical for Calm amidst a crowded meditation app market that includes Headspace, Simple Habit and Insight Timer, plus newer entrants like Peloton’s mindfulness sessions and Journey’s live group classes. It’s become easy to find guided meditations online for free, so Calm needs to become a holistic mental wellness hub.

While it risks diluting its message by doing so much, Calm’s plethora of services could make it a gateway to more of your personal health spend, including therapy, meditation retreats and health merchandise from airy clothing to yoga mats. But subscription fees alone are powering a big business. Calm quadrupled revenue in 2018 to reach $150 million in ARR and hit profitability.

Calm is poised to keep up its rapid revenue growth. After the launch of Sleep Stories, “it was incredible to see the engagement spike up and also the retention,” says Quinn. Users can choose from having McConaughey describe the wonders of the cosmos, John McEnroe walk them through the rules of tennis, fairy tales like The Little Mermaid and more.

Quinn tells me “Sleep Stories is now a huge percentage of the business, and also the length of time people spend on the app has gone up dramatically.” She tells me that so many startups are “trying to invent a problem where there isn’t one.” But difficulty snoozing is so widespread and detrimental that users are eager to pay for an app instead of a sleeping pill. Having the Interstellar actor talk about the universe until I pass out sounds alright, alright, alright.

Source. TechCrunch, Josh Constine, July 1, 2019

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VC Deals Only: Ultivue Raises $22 Million in Series C Funding

VC Deals Only: Ultivue Raises $22 Million in Series C Funding: Ultivue, the innovation leader in tissue biomarker identification and quantification assays for translational and pathology research labs, t...

Ultivue Raises $22 Million in Series C Funding

Ultivue, the innovation leader in tissue biomarker identification and quantification assays for translational and pathology research labs, today announced the close of a $22 Million Series C funding led by new investor Northpond Ventures and fueled by existing investors including ARCH Venture Partners, 6 Dimensions Capital, Yonghua Capital, and Applied Ventures. The investment will be used to further extend Ultivue’s leadership position primarily through the expansion of its portfolio of UltiMapper™ kits with an increasing level of product customization. Ultivue will also significantly accelerate its international market presence with increased investments in sales, field application scientists and marketing across all regions with an immediate focus on Asia.

“We are delighted to receive the backing of Northpond Ventures in addition to our existing investors as we advance the field of multiplex biomarker detection and analysis for tissue phenotyping,” said Michael Natan, CEO of Ultivue. “This latest round of financing sets the stage for substantial growth and allows us to continue developing the innovation to meet the evolving needs of our customers in translational and clinical research.”

“The fast market adoption of Ultivue’s reagents and services is making an impact in the field of immuno-oncology research and we are excited to work together with the current investors to drive forward the mission of tissue-based spatial phenotyping,” said Sharon Kedar, Co-Founder, Partner at Northpond Ventures.

About Ultivue

By developing a single set of novel, proprietary reagents used both for biomarker discovery (higher content, low throughput) and translational use (lower content, high throughput), Ultivue is connecting the insights gained from research directly into the pathology lab. Ultivue’s UltiMapper™ multiplexed assays applied to tissue biopsy samples enable simultaneous quantitation of multiple biomarkers with sub-cellular spatial resolution and fit completely within traditional IHC workflows. Translational and clinical researchers leverage UltiMapper assays to elucidate complex biology and demonstrate their clinical utility as precision medicine research tools. Ultivue is expanding its UltiMapper assay product portfolio and menu of contract research services to provide a comprehensive set of precision medicine solutions for oncology research and focus in other therapeutic areas.

Source. Company News Release, Ultivue, June 27, 2019

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This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the venture capital, private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.

Are you a Canadian GP/LP/CI or a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience.

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VC Deals Only: PanTheryx Lands $50M to Use “First Milk” to Target...

VC Deals Only: PanTheryx Lands $50M to Use “First Milk” to Target...: There’s a reason why mothers are instructed to breastfeed their babies soon after they’re born. The milk they produce in the days after gi...