The stem cell therapy developer, exploiting research from Digital Photonics and Nanoscience Laboratory, has set up a US subsidiary.
TreeFrog Therapeutics, a France-based stem cell therapy developer advancing research from Digital Photonics and Nanoscience Laboratory (LP2N), completed a $75m series B round yesterday led by Bpifrance’s Large Venture fund.
Investment firm Leonard Green & Partners and XAnge, the venture capital arm of private equity group Siparex, also took part in the round, as did pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb.
Founded in 2018, TreeFrog Therapeutics has created a high-throughput cell encapsulation technology dubbed C-Stem that enables the mass production and differentiation of stem cells in industrial bioreactors, creating ready-to-transplant microtissues.
The company has set up a US subsidiary in conjunction with the series B round and co-founder Kevin Alessandri will relocate to Boston next year to oversee its operations in that market. It will also open a technology hub in Kobe, Japan.
Money has additionally been allocated to deploying TreeFrog’s technology for clinical-grade manufacturing and the expansion and advancement of its pipeline both through in-house programmes and in partnership with others.
TreeFrog expects to enter its first human trial in 2024, having generated best-in-class preclinical results in an asset aimed at Parkinson’s disease.
The spinout has also appointed Frederic Desdouits as chief executive, after he served as an independent board member since 2020.
Laurent Higueret of Bpifrance Large Venture and Peter Zippelius of Leonard Green & Partners will join the board, while Girish Pendse of Bristol Myers Squibb will join the board as an observer. TreeFrog co-founder Jean-Luc Treillou has been named as chairman.
TreeFrog previously collected $7.8m in a series A round featuring regional tech transfer office Aquitaine Science Transfert in 2019. XAnge led that round with participation from Galia Gestion, Irdi Soridec Gestion and Aquiti Gestion.
It had already secured $680,000 in seed financing in late 2018 backed by Aquiti Gestion, Irdi Soridec Gestion and private investor John Samson, after Aquitaine Science Transfert had supplied $1.4m for proof-of-concept and production preparations earlier that year.
LP2N is affiliated with University of Bordeaux, CNRS and Institut d’Optique Graduate School, and TreeFrog has licensed a total of seven patents from these three institutions.