Adaptimmune, a biotech spin-out of Oxford University, has closed its series A round at $104m. The round was oversubscribed and was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Oxford University as well as unnamed previous investors also participated.
Joining the company’s existing investors are OrbiMed Advisors, Wellington Management Company, Fidelity Biosciences, Foresite Capital Management, Ridgeback Capital Management, Novo A/S, QVT, Rock Springs Capital, venBio Select and Merlin Nexus.
The company, which spun out of Oxford in 2008 and engineers T-cells to treat cancer and infectious diseases, will use the money to push ahead with its research and development of cancer treatments and bring them to market.
The funding round follows June’s announcement that Adaptimmune had signed a collaboration and licensing agreement for one of its programmes with GlaxoSmithKline.
As part of the investment, Elliott Signal, senior advisor and venture partner at NEA, David Mott, general partner and head of healthcare at NEA, Ali Behbahani, healthcare partner at NEA, and Peter Thompson, private equity partner at OrbiMed, are joining the board as non-executive directors.
James Noble, chief executive at Adaptimmune, said: “We are delighted to secure this strong financial support from some of the most prestigious and highly regarded biotechnology investment groups in the US, led by NEA. Their commitment, and the perspective and experience of our new board members, will be invaluable as we build the company up and accelerate the development of our own pipeline of clinical programmes.”
