Medipal and Sony Innovation Fund by IGV were among the investors that boosted the liver disease drug spinout's latest round to $52.6m.
Promethera Biosciences, a Belgium-based liver-transplantation drug spinout of Université catholique de Louvain, increased its series D round to €47.2m ($52.6m) on Monday, adding €7.5m in a tranche co-led by an investment vehicle for electronics manufacturer Sony.
Sony Innovation Fund by IGV co-led the tranche with venture capital firm Pegasus Tech Ventures, investing alongside medical supplies distributor Medipal Holdings, family office Six Snow and two unnamed private investors.
Trading group Itochu supplied the initial $11.3m before Mitsui & Co Global Investment, a subsidiary of conglomerate Mitsui, joined Medipal Holdings, cosmetics brand Ci:z Holdings’ Ci:z Investment unit, Mirae Asset Capital, Korea Investment Partners and undisclosed individuals to add $33.1m.
Promethera is working on drugs to treat liver diseases that will utilise liver stem cells extracted from healthy donor organs engineered to foster immune system modulation and prevent liver fibrosis.
The series D funding will help advance the company’s drug pipeline, supporting clinical trials for potential non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and acute-on-chronic liver failure treatments in non-European markets in 2020.
Promethera has received approximately $140m in funding to date, raising $16.6m in convertible bonds in January this year from investors including biopharmaceutical firm Sosei Group, Beyond Next Ventures and CMBCC Co-High Medical Investment Fund that was disclosed alongside the Itochu investment.
The round followed $11.5m in convertible note financing from packaging equipment supplier Shibuya Corporation and Shinsei Corporate Investment, the corporate venturing arm of financial services firm Shinsei Bank, in April 2018.
Mitsui, pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim, research services provider LifeLiver, industrial engineering firm SMS Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, the VC unit owned by financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ, all took part in Promethera’s $11m series C round in 2016.
Cell Innovation Partners, Fund+, Vesalius Biocapital and SRIW also participated in the round. The company’s earlier funding came from SMS, Mitsui, Boehringer Ingelheim, pharmaceutical firm Shire, semiconductor materials manufacturer ATMI, Vesalius, SambrInvest and SFPI.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
