Today's deal net contains news from PGDx, Notch Therapeutics, Quell Therapeutics, SpyBiotech, Vision Medicals, Future Meat Technologies, BusUp and Advanced Chemotherapy Technologies.

Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx), a US-based cancer diagnostics developer spun out of Johns Hopkins University, secured $103m yesterday in a series C round led by investment firm Cowen Healthcare Investments. PFM Health Sciences, Rock Springs Capital, Sands Capital, Vensana Capital, Windham Ventures, Catalio Capital Management, Innovatus Capital Partners, Kern Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Northpond Ventures also participated in the round. PGDx is working on genome and tissue-based oncology analysis technology designed to help healthcare professionals provide personalised therapies and treatments to cancer patients. The funding will be used to enhance its products and improve its commercial operations. The company had most recently received $42m in funding in October 2018, from investment adviser Innovatus Capital Partners, having previously collected roughly $99m in overall funding. Read more about the series C round on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

Notch Therapeutics, a Canada-based cell therapy developer focused on cancer, raised $85m in a series A round yesterday led by an unnamed investment fund, with participation from existing backers cancer treatment developer Allogene Therapeutics, venture capital firm Lumira Ventures and CCRM Enterprises Holdings, an affiliate of Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine – itself the commercialisation partner of Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine and University of Toronto’s Medicine by Design. The round additionally included new investors EcoR1 Capital, Casdin Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Amplitude Ventures and an undisclosed investment firm. Notch Therapeutics is working on cellular immunotherapies derived from pluripotent stem cells, based on research at University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Research Institute. The company has an existing partnership with Allogene in haematologic cancer indications, which gave the corporate a 25% stake when the agreement was signed in November 2019. The money will allow Notch to further develop its portfolio and platform, as well as to expand its team and establish a presence in the US. Notch did not disclose further funding details.

Quell Therapeutics, a UK-based cell therapy developer co-founded by researchers at King’s College London, University College London and Hannover Medical School, increased its series A round to £61m ($83.3m) today following an extension led by Syncona., with participation from UCL Technology Fund. Quell previously secured $46m over the first two series A tranches in 2019 also led by Syncona, with participation from UCL Technology Fund. Syncona now owns a 74% stake in the spinout, up from 69.3% previously. Quell is working on engineered T regulatory (Treg) cell therapies to treat conditions including autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, as well as solid organ transplant rejection.  The additional financing will allow Quell to move its first programme –aimed at inducing tolerance in liver transplants – into the clinic in the first half of 2022, and advance research programmes in type 1 diabetes and ALS, as well as creating a scalable manufacturing process and hiring additional senior leadership staff.

Oxford University Innovation (OUI)

SpyBiotech, a UK-based vaccine developer spun out of University of Oxford, obtained $32.5m in a series A round yesterday led by Braavos Investment Advisers, with commitments from university venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), as well as internet technology conglomerate Alphabet’s GV unit, Oxford Investment Consultants and the UK government-owned Future Fund, which converted an existing loan. SpyBiotech is working on technology that enables the safe delivery of vaccines while increasing efficacy. It is focusing on infectious and chronic diseases as well as cancer. It will use the series A financing to progress its lead asset, a potential vaccine for human cytomegalovirus – a virus found in the majority of humans that is usually harmless but can cause severe or fatal disease in immunocompromised patients or newborns – towards a phase 1 trial in early 2022. The money will also support further technology development. Lutz Giebel has been appointed chairman in conjunction with the round, which brought SpyBiotech’s total to $39m, it said, and followed a $5m seed round led by OSI and backed by GV in 2017.

Vision Medicals, a China-based gene-sequencing technology developer, has raised RMB200m ($30.9m) in series C funding led by internet group Tencent, according to 36Kr. Cash Capital, an investment vehicle for Chinese Academy of Sciences, also took part in the round, as did investment banking group China International Capital Corporation’s CICC Capital unit also participated in the round, as did CDH Investments and Volcanics Venture. Vision Medicals previously raised $28.8m in a series B round also backed by Cash Capital in August 2020. Read more about the series C round on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

Future Meat Technologies, an Israel-based cultured meat producer spun out of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has secured $26.8m in convertible debt financing from investors including food producers Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Rich Products Corporation, Theo Müller Group and Tyson Foods. Multicorporate-backed investment firm Emerald Technology Ventures also took part in the round, as did venture capital firms Bits x Bites, S2G Ventures and Manta Ray Ventures in addition to ADM Capital, a private equity firm unrelated to its corporate namesake. The company previously raised $14m in a series A round in 2019. Read more about the latest round on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

BusUp, a US-based corporate bus commuter management service, received $6m in a series A round today backed by IESE Business School’s venture fund Finaves V and led by Proeza Ventures, with further commitments from Autotech Ventures. The money has been allocated to an accelerated rollout of BusUp’s corporate commuting services into additional US markets and strengthening its position in existing locations.

Advanced Chemotherapy Technologies, US-based drug delivery spinout of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, expanded its series A round to $8m yesterday following a $2.5m extension from Spectrum Financial. Khosla Venture previously led a $5.5m first series A close in October 2020. The additional financing will fund the initial clinical development of the spinout’s local chemotherapy system for a certain type of pancreatic cancer.

– Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu and Jordan Williams

Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the former editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and was the producer and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast until December 2024.