University of Cambridge stem cell differentiation spinout Bit Bio secured $41.5m from investors including Arch Venture Partners to boost its overall funding to $50m.

Bit Bio, a UK-based stem cell programming technology spinout of University of Cambridge completed a $41.5m series A round on Saturday co-led by private investors Richard Klausner, Bob Nelsen, and Jim Tananbaum.
The round included venture capital firms BlueYard Capital and Arch Venture Partners as well as healthcare-focused investment firm Foresite Capital. Tananbaum is founder and CEO of Foresite Capital while Nelsen is co-founder and managing director of Arch Venture Partners.
Founded in 2016 as Elpis Biomed, Bit Bio uses synthetic biology to engineer technologies designed to reprogram stem cells – blank cells which can be differentiated to produce multiple cells of a specific kind – for use as cell and tissue-based therapies.
The technology platform, dubbed Opti-Ox, is able to discern the precise genetic make-up of each cell type, providing what Bit Bio hopes will be faster and more consistent results than competing products.
Stem cell production enhances the availability of inputs for new cellular therapies but usually requires cells to be manually curated inside a dish, producing variable results.
Bit Bio was founded by Mark Kotter, an academic neurosurgeon at the stem cells and cellular reprogramming division of University of Cambridge’s Anne McLaren Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine. It will put the series A funding into increasing headcount.
Ultimately, Bit Bio aims to be able to produce every human cell type, facilitating cell and tissue-based therapies for cancer, autoimmune disease and neurodegenerative disorders.
The company has now raised $50m altogether, it said, including $460,000 in a 2017 seed round, from a consortium led by Jonathan Milner that included Darrin Disley, Wesley Janeway and Nikolaus Starzacher, according to Business Weekly.