StrideBio is based on research conducted at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Florida.
US-based gene therapy developer StrideBio closed a $15.7m series A round yesterday backed by pharmaceutical firm Takeda, biopharmaceutical company UCB and life science real estate developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
The oversubscribed round was led by venture capital firm Hatteras Venture Partners. The corporates took part through their respective corporate venturing subsidiaries Takeda Ventures, UCB Ventures and Alexandria Venture Investments.
Founded in 2015, StrideBio is working on gene therapies that overcome pre-existing neutralising antibodies and improve gene transfer efficiency.
The approach has applications in areas such as gene addition, silencing and editing and could serve to tackle conditions including rare genetic diseases.
The platform is based on research by co-founders Aravind Asokan, associate professor of genetics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Mavis Agbandje-McKenna, professor and director of the Center for Structural Biology at University of Florida.
Jayson Punwani, partner at Takeda Ventures, and Erica Whittaker, vice-president, head of UCB Ventures, have joined the board of directors of StrideBio.
StrideBio previously raised $1m in seed funding in June 2017, according to a regulatory filing, with the Triangle Business Journal identifying Hatteras Venture Partners as the investor.
– This article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
