Nuvaira, based on research by a then-professor at Washington University School of Medicine, has closed a $79m funding round led by US Venture Partners.

Nuvaira, a US-based developer of treatments for obstructive lung diseases, closed a $79m series E round on Monday led by venture capital firm US Venture Partners. The round also featured venture capital firms Endeavour Vision, Qiming Venture Partners, Lightstone Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), Split Rock Partners and Windham Venture Partners as well as philanthropic outfit Richard King Mellon Foundation. Investment firms Morgenthaler Ventures and company builder Versant Ventures also took part, as did Vertex Venture, the venture capital arm of Singaporean government-owned investment firm Temasek. Nuvaira has developed a platform, called Lung Denervation System, that aims to tackle chronic lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, by targeting overactive airway nerves. The company was founded in 2008 as Innovative Pulmonary Solutions and first rebranded to Holaira before settling on its current name, Nuvaira, in 2017. Nuvaira was founded by Martin Mayse, who at the time was the director of interventional pulmonary medicine and an associate professor of medicine and surgery at Washington University in St Louis’ School of Medicine. Mayse now serves as chief technology officer. The funding will go towards a clinical trial dubbed Airflow-3, following a placebo controlled randomised clinical trial, with a view of gaining regulatory approval for the treatment in the US. The company will also pursue clinical development in Europe. Nuvaira has raised almost $150m to date. Vertex led a $42m series D round in 2014 that included Windham, ATV, Morgenthaler, Split Rock and Versant, after the latter four had backed a $10m series C round in 2013. ATV led a $10.6m series B in 2012 that also featured Versant and Split Rock, adding to an $8m series A round consisting of a $3m first tranche provided by Versant and Split Rock in 2010, and a $5m extension supplied by Morgenthaler the following year.

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Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).